Mesut Ozil Has Been 'Excluded' From Fenerbahce Squad With Immediate Effect
The club have released a statement.
Fenerbahce have 'excluded' Mesut Ozil from their squad with immediate effect, as well as Turkey international Ozan Tufan.
The Super Lig giants released a statement on Thursday afternoon confirming the former Arsenal man will not be playing for the foreseeable future.
It reads: "Our Football A Team players Mesut Ozil and Ozan Tufan were excluded from the squad as per the decision taken. It is announced to the public."
Ozil started Sunday's 2-1 win over Konyaspor as captain, but was brought off at halftime.
The reason for his and Tufan's exclusion has not yet been made public.
According to Turkish outlet Aksam, Ozil was called 'physically incompetent' and struggled with the intensity of last weekend's victory.
He missed the first eight games of 2022 with a lower back problem.
Ozil joined Fenerbache in January 2021 after being frozen out at Arsenal under manager Mikel Arteta.
The World Cup winner was one of Arsenal's highest earners, but was left out of their Premier League and Europa League squads before his departure.
It's believed Ozil didn't see eye to eye with former teammate Arteta over his vision for the Gunners.
This season, he's scored eight goals in 22 league games and provided two assists.
A recent video uploaded to TikTok showed Ozil meeting an Arsenal fan who asked him to say his old 'Ya Gunners Ya' battle cry.
Ozil was having none of it and replied, "No no, it's not gonna happen."
One potential reason for his frosty response could be the fan attempting to get Ozil to sign his shirt, which had Arteta on the back.
He did end up posing for a picture however.
Meanwhile, Tufan returned to Fenerbahce in February after a loan spell in the Premier League.
The midfielder spent half a season on loan at Watford but after two managerial changes and just four starts, he opted to return to his homeland.
Fenerbahce are third in Super Lig and two points behind Konyaspor.
Trabzonspor are a whopping 15 points clear at the top and favourites to win the title for the first time since 1984.
Topics: Football, Mesut Ozil, Turkey
Daniel Marland