From Bulmke to Bernabéu – Mesut Özil has completed an amazing journey. As a young boy the 22-year-old midfielder used to kick around in an enclosed football area in Gelsenkirchen-Bulmke, the city district in the Ruhr District where he grew up. Local people call the hard pitch the Monkey Cage because of the high steel railings that surround it. Estadio Santiago Bernabéu is in a totally different league: it is the football temple of the legendary club Real Madrid – and since the beginning of this season the stage for Germany’s internationally celebrated midfield star.
Quite a few Germans footballers have played for Real Madrid over the years. Turkish German Mesut Özil, however, represents a new generation that reflects the diversity of German society. Forty years ago his grandfather came from the village of Hisiroglu in northern Turkey to the Ruhr District, where Mesut was born in 1988. He already became acquainted with Germany’s diversity at the Monkey Cage. Lebanese, Tunisians, Turks and Germans all play together there. Mesut found a place in society through sport. He enjoyed a rapid rise: he played in the Bundesliga for Schalke 04 at the age of 17, was a member of the youth team that won the U-21 European Championship in 2009 and only a few weeks later appeared in his first official match for the German eleven. Mesut Özil was one of the outstanding players at the World Cup in South Africa.
National coach Joachim Löw is full of praise for the highly skilled technician and credits him with “moves of the highest standard”, which he also demonstrated in the European Championship qualifier on 8 October 2010, when Germany played Turkey in Berlin. Özil contributed a goal to Germany’s 3:0 win. He was booed by Turkish fans for the entire 90 minutes. Many Turks still resent his decision to play for Germany: after all, until his first official national game Özil could also have chosen to wear the Turkish jersey. Nevertheless, Turkey’s President Abdullah Gül gave him his support and called his career “a very successful example of integration”. Özil has calmly and collectedly accepted his place in Germany – and helped his national team develop a new style: “We want to play a convincing game; we want to shine. For me that is now also typically German and that makes me proud.” Players of the most diverse origins are contributing to the German team’s new football culture. At the World Cup in South Africa the German team included eleven players with international roots – from ace defender Jérôme Boateng, son of German-Ghanaian parents, to star striker Cacau, who came to Germany ten years ago from Brazil. And the midfield is under the control of Mesut Özil, who quite naturally sees Germany as his home: “I was born here, I have my friends here. And that’s what I want to pass on to other young people with foreign roots, especially to my Turkish fellow countrymen: every one of you can make it.”
Away from the football pitch, Mesut Özil plans to set up a foundation with his name that will support integration projects. Özil, who always appears calm and relaxed during interviews, is thinking, for example, about student exchanges between German families and immigrant families inside Germany. These are very down-to-earth ideas for someone who has made it into world-class football at such lightning speed. At Real Madrid Özil is moving and scoring not only in La Liga, but also in the Champions League. He has already been nominated for the title of World Player of the Year 2010. It would seem that the rise of the boy from Gelsenkirchen-Bulmke will continue for some time yet.////
