Mesut Ozil Set To Retire From Football And Become Professional Gamer

Mesut Ozil is set to become a professional gamer once he hangs up his boots - and that could come sooner rather than later given his situation at Fenerbahce.

Ozil, along with teammate, Ozan Tufan, was axed from the Fenerbahce first-team squad following a verbal altercation with the club's interim manager Ismail Kartal, back in March.

The World Cup winner joined the Turkish giants in January 2021 after falling out of favour at Arsenal under Mikel Arteta.

Ozil has played 37 times for Fener and scored nine goals but now finds himself in the very same situation, with incoming manager Jorge Jesus telling him he will not play as he has "had his time".

Image: PA

The former Real Madrid playmaker has two years left on his deal but already has his post-football career in the pipeline.

Ozil's agent, Dr Erkut Sogut, has revealed the former Germany international will turn his attentions to competitive gaming.

"I think he will not play football in any other club any more. I can't see that – it will be Fenerbahce and that’s it," Sogut told The Telegraph.

“He will go more into esports, play himself and maybe become an esports athlete. He’s really good, to be honest, at Fortnite and I think one day I wouldn’t be surprised if he is competing. He owns a team – M10 Esports – and he has players. He has a gaming house in Germany. He has football, like Fifa, and Fortnite.”

“He’s really good, to be honest, at Fortnite and I think one day I wouldn’t be surprised if he is competing.

“He owns a team – M10 Esports – and he has players. He has a gaming house in Germany.

“He has football, like Fifa, and Fortnite.”

Ozil launched his Twitch channel in 2018 and has 175,000 followers. He regularly streams Fortnite and there was a bizarre conspiracy theory floating about a few years back claiming that his persistent back problems were related to his gaming addiction.

Image: Mesut Ozil

At the time of the outlandish claim, Ozil, then an Arsenal player, had racked up 600 wins and played 5,221 matches lasting 20 minutes on Epic Games' free-to-play title.