It’s already three-and-a-half years since Mesut Ozil signed for Arsenal from Real Madrid.
The Gunners sprang a major surprise by securing the German playmaker’s services for a cool £42.5 million at the end of the 2013 summer transfer window.
Ozil was widely regarded as one of the world’s best No. 10s at the time – if not the best No. 10 – but he decided to leave the Bernabeu after Madrid splashed out a world record fee for Gareth Bale.
The left-footed attacking midfielder had spent the previous three seasons with Los Blancos after catching the eye of the Spanish giants at the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.
Ozil was one of the tournament’s standout players and Madrid weren’t the only top European club keen to seal his signature.
“Arsenal were interested in signing me after the 2010 World Cup, as were Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid,” an extract from Ozil’s new book ‘Die Magie des Spiels’, published by Bild and brought to our attention by Goal, reads.
“My agent sat down with Bayern to discuss a move. The club told him about their plans with me and how they intended to use me. He had similar talks with the other clubs that wanted me.”
OZIL: HOW GUARDIOLA CONVINCED ME TO REJECT BARCELONA
Ozil also explains how he was leaning towards signing for Barcelona that summer, only for one person at the Camp Nou – a pretty important person, for that matter – to let him down.
“Before I travelled to Barcelona, I was convinced that was my next club,” Ozil adds. “I was leaning toward joining Barcelona. There was no team in the world that played more beautiful football.
“But [Pep] Guardiola did not attend talks and he did not call me either the days after. He did not even send me a text. He did not show me that he wanted to sign me as well. My interest in a move to Barcelona quickly decreased.”
In fairness, though, would Ozil have got a regular spot in Guardiola’s Barcelona XI?
He wouldn’t have displaced any of the three central midfielders – Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets – and he wouldn’t have displaced David Villa, Lionel Messi or Pedro in the attacking positions.
It was probably for the best that Ozil joined Jose Mourinho in the Spanish capital.