adminLONDON. — For a player so alert to his next move on and off the football field, it should come as no surprise that Mesut Ozil was rather adept at chess as a child. The schoolboy Ozil was obsessed with football, but the game of rooks, bishops and knights also appealed to that quick-thinking brain.
“We had a chess club in our school,” recalls Christian Krabbe, Ozil’s form teacher from the age of 11 to 16 who has become a valued family friend. “He was interested in mathematics and, of course, chess has a lot to do with logical thinking and strategies. He was quite good.
“Maybe now if he is away with the German team and has some free time he can take a chessboard.”
Ozil, the son of second-generation Turkish immigrants Mustafa and Gulizar, was only ever interested in grand-mastering the football pitch.
Tomorrow, Old Trafford will provide a platform for the 25-year-old Arsenal mid-fielder’s celebrated skills. Stories of dedication and drive litter the £42.5million man’s formative years.
Ozil’s radar passing skills were first honed in the Affenkafig — aka “monkey cage” — a mesh-fenced five-a-side space a short walk from his home in the Bismarck district of Gelsenkirchen. He would be there “every day whether it be sun, snow or rain”, according to his older brother Mutlu. Joachen Herrmann, deputy head at Ozil’s secondary school, describes the young boy’s fascination with football as “a little bit autistic”, adding: “I always had the feeling he even took the ball to bed.”
From his classroom window, Ozil could see the Veltins-Arena, Schalke’s home stadium. The dreaming teenager had every reason to let his mind drift. As well as his precocious talent, the school has close links with the Bundesliga side and some impressive alumni.
Manuel Neuer, the Bayern Munich goalkeeper, was a few years above Ozil, while Julian Draxler, tracked by a clutch of English Premier League clubs, and his Schalke team-mates Benedikt Howedes and Joel Matip are also graduates of the school.
The school is forward thinking in football terms. Three mornings a week are set aside for training. Ozil was known as a reserved student but in training and on match days his personality changed. “When I saw Mesut for the first time, I had to check his age,” says Krabbe. “I thought he must be two years older than the others, he was that intelligent. On the pitch he was another person. He exploded.” Ozil was raised by Mustafa and Gulizar in an apartment at No 30 Bornstrasse. The area is quiet and residential, characterised by well-kept buildings. He lived with his parents and three siblings — Mutlu and his sisters Nese and Duygu. One neighbour, Mrs Buriye, remembers: “Mesut was a sweet child. Whenever you saw him he would give you a friendly greeting.” The Bismarck area is a somewhat scruffy suburb of around 16 000 inhabitants. Coal-mining used to attract immigrant workers — such as Ozil’s grandfather in the sixties — but that began to grind to a halt in 1966 when the main colliery to the north-west of the district shut.
Social mobility here is limited. Gelsenkirchen has one of the highest unemployment rates in Germany, having approached 30 per cent in the decades since the coal industry slowed to a halt.
The Ozil family home has now been upgraded to a town house hidden away in a more respectable area. There is a driveway and manicured lawns but it is a humble abode, given Mesut’s fortune.
Mutlu played for Firtinaspor, a local club for Turkish boys, but Mustafa, who ran a small restaurant, took his more skilful son to Westfalia 04 Gelsenkirchen. He introduced his seven-year-old with the bold promise that he would become one of the world’s best.
“He was a weak little thing but could shoot 25 metres, run very fast and entered every contest for the ball,” says club coach Ralf Maraun. “He was a real street footballer. I remember once we won a game 12 goals to zero. Mesut scored 10. The other coach took me aside and said, ‘Next time, please leave that one at home’.”
After three years, Ozil moved to Teutonia Schalke-Nord and, in 1999, to Falke Gelsenkirchen.
His departure from Falke still rankles with club officials. Ozil left 33 days before his 12th birthday, denying them development money from his transfers under Fifa law.
Ozil then played at Rot-Weiss Essen from 2000 to 2005 and the club are entitled to a £640 000 slice of the Arsenal deal. Andreas Winkler, a Bayern Munich reserve during manager Jupp Heynckes’s first spell, was his coach. — Mailonline.
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