Happy birthday, Mesut Ozil.
In the history of modern men’s football, few players have incapsulated the magic of the beautiful game more than Ozil with his mesmeric touch and captivating nonchalance making everything look so, so easy.
At the end of the day, while it might be the world-class stars churning out crazy statistics week in, week out who ultimately rise to the top, it’s the entertainers and mavericks that truly get fans shuffling through the turnstiles every week.
Ozil’s iconic status in football
You know, the Allan Saint-Maximins and Hatem Ben Arfas of this world where you just know that every time you see them they’re going to produce a moment of magic you’ll talk about for hours afterwards in the pub.
And it just so happens that Ozil was one of the very greatest players to ever fit into that category, combining his undoubted entertainment factor with the data and trophies to back it up.
Not only did the German star bring supporters to their feet whenever he touched the ball, but he also plundered truckloads of assists in his prime and bagged a World Cup winners’ medal to boot.
The moral of the story here is that despite Ozil’s career petering out and falling off the radar in recent years, he will continue to be remembered and revered as an absolute gem of the 21st century in the hearts of the fans.
Ozil’s world-class level of teammates
And no doubt for plenty of his teammates, too, because the birthday boy also had the pleasure of sharing the dressing room with countless other members of the last 22 years’ finest players.
Across his times with Real Madrid, Arsenal and the German national team in particular, Ozil rubbed shoulders with fellow world champions as well as Champions League icons and Ballon d’Or winners.
As such, Ozil must have an awfully tough time choosing whenever he’s asked the classic question of who his greatest ever teammates were, and even better: what is your ultimate XI of teammates?
When Ozil named his dream XI
It’s a classic exercise that’s always fascinating to put in front of legendary players like Ozil and luckily for us, the man himself put his cards on the table as part of a viral interview with Arsenal back in 2015.
Almost six million people have tuned in to see who Ozil chose in his greatest ever line-up and as soon as you see him reeling off icon after icon to play for his team, it quickly becomes apparent why so many fans were interested.
So be sure to do yourselves a favour and get in on the action by seeing who Ozil picked in his dream XI of footballers that he played alongside throughout his legendary career:
Video: Ozil names his dream XI whilst at Arsenal
An unstoppable team packed with legends
Wowsers. Now that team is causing some serious damage if they all played together in their prime.
The blend between Real and German legends is incredible to see, merging two of the greatest pools of talent from the early 2010s and leading to dream collaborations such as Marcelo and Philipp Lahm or Sergio Ramos and Jerome Boateng.
Read more: Mesut Ozil silenced Liverpool fans with Bergkamp-like touch in 2016
Further up the pitch and the Real influence grows stronger and stronger with Cristiano Ronaldo unsurprisingly taking his place alongside the likes of Angel Di Maria and Xabi Alonso.
However, most heartwarming of all for Arsenal fans will undoubtedly have been the selection of Santi Cazorla, who endures as one of the most technically gifted players to ever grace the Premier League.
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And just in case you’re rolling your eyes at the fact that Ozil jokingly picked a young Serge Gnabry as his number 10 for the simple fact that he was stood in the room at the time, fear not, because we have a solution.
As part of a Twitter Q&A in 2020, Ozil provided an updated version of his dream XI that essentially reaffirmed his initial viral answer with 10 players remaining exactly the same five years later.
The omission this time around was, of course, the jokey inclusion of Gnabry, which was altered for another one of Ozil’s legendary Los Blancos teammates in the form of none other than Kaka.
“Arsenal Fear is REAL! Rivals are PETRIFIED & WANT ME BLOCKED😡” (Football Terrace)
And birthday presents can hardly come much bigger than kicking back and reminiscing on having played with all those superstars. Have a great day, Mesut.
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