Ozil explains charity work: I earn so much, I can’t spend it all on myself
Mesut Ozil is one of the richest footballers on the planet but also one of the most generous.
Ozil has been one of Arsenal’s highest earning players after signing from Real Madrid for £42.5million six years ago.
But his agent says the Gunners’ £350,000-a-week Muslim superstar is on a to help the world’s starving, sick and homeless.
Ozil has come under fire for rejected a 12.5 per cent pay cut during the coronavirus crisis.
Arsenal confirmed on Monday that the first-team squad and Mikel Arteta will take a cut due to the coronavirus outbreak.
But Ozil has not accepted the agreement as he did not want to rush into a decision.
Ozil’s wages work out at £18.2m a year, which means his income would fall by £2.3m.
His agent Dr Erkut Sogut revealed last year that Ozil’s acts of kindness include:
. paying for 1,000 vital operations for children across the world
. feeding 100,000 homeless people at 16 refugee camps in Turkey and Syria
. paying £240,000 to fund operations for sick kids in Brazil
. working for children’s charity Rays of Sunshine
On his wedding day to former Miss Turkey, Amine Gulse, Ozil promised to finance 1,000 operations for needy kids across the globe.
“Then, during last year’s World Cup, he told me ‘I want to do this bigger. Let’s change the lives of 1,000 kids, let’s do 1,000 operations’.
“I said ‘This will cost you millions’. But he replied ‘If I don’t share my money now, when will I? And with whom?’
“Mesut came from a very poor background, with his mum doing two cleaning jobs a day. He knows what it means not to have anything.
“And he said ‘Look, Erkut, I earn so much, I can’t spend it all on myself, so I can give much more’.”
Ozil admitted: “As a footballer I am fortunate and in a privileged position. Amine and I will bear the expenses for surgeries of 1,000 children in need.”
His wedding day gift also included feeding an astonishing 100,000 homeless people at 16 refugee camps and shelters in Turkey and Syria.
Ozil, 31, paid for the meals, Sogut organised the massive take-away operation and the Red Cross delivered the food to the sites.
Sogut, 39, added: “Mesut told me, ‘This is my wedding present to the world. Today, the food is on me’.
“It cost Mesut a huge amount of money that day. But it was something he was very passionate about.”
Ozil had previously donated his 2014 World Cup winnings — about £240,000 — to fund surgery for 23 sick Brazilian children in conjunction with the BigShoe charity.
Sogut has a prized video of some of the hungry in the Turkish capital, Ankara, sending Ozil heartfelt thank-you messages.
Last year the agent flew to Ozil’s parents’ Turkish birthplace, Devrek, where the Arsenal No 10 is building a five-storey football academy for the town.
Ozil is also working with children’s charity Rays of Sunshine and a Barnet hospice, while five of the 15 seats in his Emirates box are always reserved for charity.
Sogut said: “Mesut loves helping children. He became great friends with a kid who had terminal cancer. Tragically, Charlie died seven months ago and the boy’s death really affected him.”
As did the horrific attempted carjacking near his home last July.
Ozil, Amine and team-mate Sead Kolasinac were attacked by two villains on mopeds.
Videos of Kolasinac fighting off one of the knife-wielding thugs went viral and Ozil admitted: “Sead was really brave.
“I was scared for my wife. We were worried these guys had been targeting us.”
Almost a year to the day earlier, Ozil had quit playing for Germany, citing the “racism and disrespect ” he had suffered in his homeland over his Turkish roots.
Despite being born in the German town of Gelsenkirchen and winning 92 caps for his country, he was castigated after being photographed with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in London.
Sogut revealed the final straw came when the director of Ozil’s old school in Gelsenkirchen told him he was “no longer welcome at a planned event, despite paying for immigrant children’s education there for ten years”.
The agent added: “It was the main reason Mesut stopped playing for Germany.
“He told me, ‘If I am not even welcome at my own school how can I wear the national jersey?’ Whenever anyone asks him for help, he just gives.
“He has given jobs to seven of his childhood friends from Gelsenkirchen. They now work for him in Dusseldorf.
“His charitable work costs him millions but he earns millions so is happy to give back. I don’t know of another player who does it on this scale.
“But he doesn’t want to brag about it. Most Arsenal fans don’t care about these things anyway, just whether he is playing or not.”
Ozil has started both games under interim boss Freddie Ljungberg following Unai Emery’s sacking.
And Sogut, who has built Ozil a UK property portfolio to generate £100,000-a-month rental income when he retires, said: “Arsenal DNA is in Mesut’s blood. He loves the club.
“He has had offers from other Premier League clubs but he was clear, ‘If I am not staying at Arsenal then I will leave England’.
“He has never wanted to join another club here.”
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And Ozil declared: “This is my home. I am proud to be an Arsenal player, I’m happy here.”
Sogut — affectionately nicknamed The Nerd by Ozil because of his love of libraries — negotiated both the German’s original Arsenal contract and his huge new £18.2m-a-year deal which ties him to the club until 2021.
Now, Sogut owns two thriving 39 Steps coffee shops in Soho and Knightsbridge, lives in London and has an English wife and young son.