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crinkly_earsLooking For Answers in Gelsenkirchen - How Mesut Özil Became a Star.
Cadena Ser (Spanish Radio Station): “What’s your favourite place?”
Mesut Özil: “There are two. Where I’ve come from – Gelsenkirchen – and where I am – Madrid.”
Auf Spurensuche in Gelsenkirchen:
By Edgar Emken – SuperIllu.de
Link to the German
Date: June 24, 2010
Translated by me,![[info]](../../img/userinfo.gif?v=3)
jenny_jenkins
Could it be a Summer Fairy Tale once again? Could it be just like four years ago, when our National Team, in the tournament at home, played its way into the hearts of its country? In Gelsenkirchen’s Bismark district it looks like it could be. At least it does on this Wednesday night, the 23rd of June 2010. Our team has beaten the Ghanaian National Team 1-0 and managed to make it into the Final Sixteen as a result. Cars, honking and draped in German flags, are driving through the night. Black Red and Gold – and happy faces everywhere!
One of them, Mesut Özil, has managed, in the 60th minute with a splendid strike from just outside the penalty area, to score the game’s only goal. He’s shot himself into the Nation’s heart. He’s already managed that here - this is where he was born and grew up.
Is he going to be the next football hero? The boy’s got the stuff. Here, in Gelsenkirchen-Bismark, they’ve long since taken him to heart. The celebration over the winning goal was especially loud in the club-hangout for Firtinaspor, a local football team with lots of players with Turkish roots. On this Wednesday, two dozen members of the club have gathered together to watch the critical game against Ghana in front of the large flat-screen television on the wall.
Martin Specht - the photographer for Super-Illustrated – and I are sitting in the centre of the group. We are on a journey to seek out the roots of a player who could become one of the big ones of the tournament. He’s being compared with Lionel Messi already, who has been named the best footballer in the world. Murat Akgun, a player with Firtinaspor, knows Mesut Özil really well. “He’s one of those people who puts his whole heart and soul into things, but he never loses his sense of proportion.” In fact, everyone in the club’s hangout knows him.
A couple of streets away is where Mesut grew up – Bornstrasse #30. With parents Mustafa and Gulizar, his brother Mutlu and his sisters Nese and Duygu. The father was a gastronome, who operated several restaurants in Gelsenkirchen.
It is a quiet residential area, characterized by well-kept apartment buildings.
The Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck district (16,000 inhabitants) is named after the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Coal hasn’t been mined here for quite a while – not since 1966. Even today, the main shaft of the old mine seems to characterize the city.
[note: Mesut’s grandfather arrived in Germany from the Black Sea as a metals-miner in the 1960s.]
The old mine-shaft.
What was Mesut like as a child? We asked his neighbour. Mrs Buriye lived with her family on the same floor: “They were a very nice family, and we had very normal neighbourly relations. Mesut was a sweet child. Whenever you saw him he would give you a friendly greeting. He spent every single day playing with his ball."
Mrs Buriye remembers Mesut as a sweet child.
Now Mesut’s family lives only a couple of kilometres away in a row-house.
In the so-called “Monkey-Cage” – a fenced in ball-park on Olga Street – like all the boys in this part of the city, he made his first footballing efforts. It owes its name to the three metre wire fence that surrounds it and the trees inside. Mesut’s older brother Mutlu, who is himself a footballer with Firtinaspor says: “Football was our whole life. Every day – it didn’t matter if it was snowing or sunny or raining – we were always kicking around in the Monkey Cage – ever since we were really small.
The "Monkey Cage"
In 1995 Mustafa Özil enrolled the seven year old Mesut with the sports club DJK Westfalia Gelsenkirchen. His older brother already belonged and the training ground was only a couple kilometres away. We head off there and meet Ralf Maraun. The fifty year old with a sunburned face was Mesut’s first coach. He remembers him extremely well.
“He played in the F-youths. Off the pitch he was very calm – and also very shy and reserved. The moment he was on the pitch it was precisely the opposite: he was our star-player, he was a weak little thing, but could shoot 25 metres, run very fast, and entered every contest for the ball. He was a real street-footballer. I remember his father saying ‘Mesut could really become very good.’ And I remember once when we entered a championship and won the game with 12 goals to zero. Mesut scored 10 of them. The other coach took me aside and said ‘Next time, please leave that one at home!’”
Ralf Maraun
Fabian Maraun, Ralf Maraun’s son, was one of Mesut Özil’s teammates. He remembers: “We played together in the F-youth for 3 years. Mesut was very introverted and almost never spoke. He didn’t need to. It was through his football that he showed his class. With him we only lost one game in 3 years. He always scored 3 or 4 goals a game – at the very least. He made the difference for us, week after week. On the one hand, we were upset sometimes that he was so in love with the ball and did everything in the game himself. On the other hand we were thrilled to have him along. I think that any football team with an outstanding player like that can’t help but be happy about it."
Fabian Maraun
Fabian flips through a photo-album with pictures of that time, which his mother has made for him. In three pictures from 1996, group photos of the whole team, he shows us Mesut. In one of them Mesut is holding a trophy. "I’m really happy to have these photographs. They are memories that I can share with my children and grandchildren.
We continue driving to until we arrive in Kurt Schumacher Street in Gelsenkirchen. The parking spot in front of number 143 is called Ernst Kuzorra Place and the locale has a glorified past. Above the old door hangs the original sign with the words “Clubhouse Schalke 04”. Next door is the old place where Schalke 04 celebrated its championships. One of the heroes of that time, Ernst Kuzzora (1905-1990) presented the host with a souvenir: the team bench on which he used to sit. It’s been decorated with his picture and a plaque. The walls are full of trophies – photographs of Schalke stars past and present, trophies and more.
Today it’s the clubhouse of Teutonia-Schalke-Nord. This is where Mesut Özil played for a year and a half – from 1998 to 1999. He followed his big brother Mutlu here. Mutlu remembers: “My brother was actually supposed to be in the C-team, but he was so good he was allowed to play with the D-team. He played in midfield."
In the clubhouse we meet Tim Wupper. He played with Mesut on the team and went to the same school – the local comprehensive school “Berger Feld” in Erle district. Mesut was a grade below him. “It’s a nice feeling to have played in the past with one of today’s super-stars.”
The grass is no longer there. Asphalt fills the pitch. Marcel Senk coached the youth team. "Mesut was allowed to play in the D-youth because he was exceptionally gifted. He was the youngest though and couldn’t always keep up physically. He always did his best though.”
After an away-game to DJK Falke Gelsenkirchen, the bigger clubs became aware of him. Invitations followed: successively to Rot-Weiss-Essen, FC Schalke 04 and finally Werder Bremen – where he has been under contract since 2008.
Back to the Firtinaspor clubhouse, where the game against Ghana is in full swing. Everyone is pressing their thumbs for the German Team. 25th minute: Mesut Özil makes a solo-run on the Ghanaian goal. Everyone in the clubhouse rises to their feet – arms raised, shouts at their lips. Mesut shoots directly at the keeper. The chance is gone. The watchers in the clubhouse sink back.
Half-time. And there’s still no goal! “My heart beats for the German National Team” says Nevzat Kocakaya. The musician played in a team and knows a thing or two. His verdict on the first half: “Our striker Cacau [Klose was out on suspension] is doing well. He’s all over the place, and wins a lot of balls. I’d bet on him getting a goal.” On defender Per Mertesacker: “He’s disappointing. Loew has got to switch him off.” And Mesut Özil? “He should have made that goal! But perhaps it’ll all work out!”
And how! Mesut becomes the hero of the game, as he scores the 1-0 on the hour-mark. Everyone leaps to their feet, as he strikes and the ball nestles into the back of the net. “And he’s Turkish too!” call out a few of them. Mesut is one of them – their boy – whom they’ve known since he was small. And he’s made the goal! Serdar Özil’s eyes light up. He’s Mesut Özil's cousin. “I’m so proud that the German Team will go through to the last sixteen - and because of his goal!”
Serdar Özil’s eyes light up. He’s Mesut Özil's cousin. “I’m so proud that the German Team will go through to the last sixteen - and because of his goal!”
Club members observe Mesut's Interview with ZDF following the game.
Cadena Ser (Spanish Radio Station): “What’s your favourite place?”
Mesut Özil: “There are two. Where I’ve come from – Gelsenkirchen – and where I am – Madrid.”
Auf Spurensuche in Gelsenkirchen:
By Edgar Emken – SuperIllu.de
Link to the German
Date: June 24, 2010
Translated by me,
jenny_jenkinsCould it be a Summer Fairy Tale once again? Could it be just like four years ago, when our National Team, in the tournament at home, played its way into the hearts of its country? In Gelsenkirchen’s Bismark district it looks like it could be. At least it does on this Wednesday night, the 23rd of June 2010. Our team has beaten the Ghanaian National Team 1-0 and managed to make it into the Final Sixteen as a result. Cars, honking and draped in German flags, are driving through the night. Black Red and Gold – and happy faces everywhere!
One of them, Mesut Özil, has managed, in the 60th minute with a splendid strike from just outside the penalty area, to score the game’s only goal. He’s shot himself into the Nation’s heart. He’s already managed that here - this is where he was born and grew up.
Is he going to be the next football hero? The boy’s got the stuff. Here, in Gelsenkirchen-Bismark, they’ve long since taken him to heart. The celebration over the winning goal was especially loud in the club-hangout for Firtinaspor, a local football team with lots of players with Turkish roots. On this Wednesday, two dozen members of the club have gathered together to watch the critical game against Ghana in front of the large flat-screen television on the wall.
Martin Specht - the photographer for Super-Illustrated – and I are sitting in the centre of the group. We are on a journey to seek out the roots of a player who could become one of the big ones of the tournament. He’s being compared with Lionel Messi already, who has been named the best footballer in the world. Murat Akgun, a player with Firtinaspor, knows Mesut Özil really well. “He’s one of those people who puts his whole heart and soul into things, but he never loses his sense of proportion.” In fact, everyone in the club’s hangout knows him.
A couple of streets away is where Mesut grew up – Bornstrasse #30. With parents Mustafa and Gulizar, his brother Mutlu and his sisters Nese and Duygu. The father was a gastronome, who operated several restaurants in Gelsenkirchen.
It is a quiet residential area, characterized by well-kept apartment buildings.
The Gelsenkirchen-Bismarck district (16,000 inhabitants) is named after the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Coal hasn’t been mined here for quite a while – not since 1966. Even today, the main shaft of the old mine seems to characterize the city.
[note: Mesut’s grandfather arrived in Germany from the Black Sea as a metals-miner in the 1960s.]
The old mine-shaft.
What was Mesut like as a child? We asked his neighbour. Mrs Buriye lived with her family on the same floor: “They were a very nice family, and we had very normal neighbourly relations. Mesut was a sweet child. Whenever you saw him he would give you a friendly greeting. He spent every single day playing with his ball."
Mrs Buriye remembers Mesut as a sweet child.
Now Mesut’s family lives only a couple of kilometres away in a row-house.
In the so-called “Monkey-Cage” – a fenced in ball-park on Olga Street – like all the boys in this part of the city, he made his first footballing efforts. It owes its name to the three metre wire fence that surrounds it and the trees inside. Mesut’s older brother Mutlu, who is himself a footballer with Firtinaspor says: “Football was our whole life. Every day – it didn’t matter if it was snowing or sunny or raining – we were always kicking around in the Monkey Cage – ever since we were really small.
The "Monkey Cage"
In 1995 Mustafa Özil enrolled the seven year old Mesut with the sports club DJK Westfalia Gelsenkirchen. His older brother already belonged and the training ground was only a couple kilometres away. We head off there and meet Ralf Maraun. The fifty year old with a sunburned face was Mesut’s first coach. He remembers him extremely well.
“He played in the F-youths. Off the pitch he was very calm – and also very shy and reserved. The moment he was on the pitch it was precisely the opposite: he was our star-player, he was a weak little thing, but could shoot 25 metres, run very fast, and entered every contest for the ball. He was a real street-footballer. I remember his father saying ‘Mesut could really become very good.’ And I remember once when we entered a championship and won the game with 12 goals to zero. Mesut scored 10 of them. The other coach took me aside and said ‘Next time, please leave that one at home!’”
Ralf Maraun
Fabian Maraun, Ralf Maraun’s son, was one of Mesut Özil’s teammates. He remembers: “We played together in the F-youth for 3 years. Mesut was very introverted and almost never spoke. He didn’t need to. It was through his football that he showed his class. With him we only lost one game in 3 years. He always scored 3 or 4 goals a game – at the very least. He made the difference for us, week after week. On the one hand, we were upset sometimes that he was so in love with the ball and did everything in the game himself. On the other hand we were thrilled to have him along. I think that any football team with an outstanding player like that can’t help but be happy about it."
Fabian Maraun
Fabian flips through a photo-album with pictures of that time, which his mother has made for him. In three pictures from 1996, group photos of the whole team, he shows us Mesut. In one of them Mesut is holding a trophy. "I’m really happy to have these photographs. They are memories that I can share with my children and grandchildren.
We continue driving to until we arrive in Kurt Schumacher Street in Gelsenkirchen. The parking spot in front of number 143 is called Ernst Kuzorra Place and the locale has a glorified past. Above the old door hangs the original sign with the words “Clubhouse Schalke 04”. Next door is the old place where Schalke 04 celebrated its championships. One of the heroes of that time, Ernst Kuzzora (1905-1990) presented the host with a souvenir: the team bench on which he used to sit. It’s been decorated with his picture and a plaque. The walls are full of trophies – photographs of Schalke stars past and present, trophies and more.
Today it’s the clubhouse of Teutonia-Schalke-Nord. This is where Mesut Özil played for a year and a half – from 1998 to 1999. He followed his big brother Mutlu here. Mutlu remembers: “My brother was actually supposed to be in the C-team, but he was so good he was allowed to play with the D-team. He played in midfield."
In the clubhouse we meet Tim Wupper. He played with Mesut on the team and went to the same school – the local comprehensive school “Berger Feld” in Erle district. Mesut was a grade below him. “It’s a nice feeling to have played in the past with one of today’s super-stars.”
The grass is no longer there. Asphalt fills the pitch. Marcel Senk coached the youth team. "Mesut was allowed to play in the D-youth because he was exceptionally gifted. He was the youngest though and couldn’t always keep up physically. He always did his best though.”
After an away-game to DJK Falke Gelsenkirchen, the bigger clubs became aware of him. Invitations followed: successively to Rot-Weiss-Essen, FC Schalke 04 and finally Werder Bremen – where he has been under contract since 2008.
Back to the Firtinaspor clubhouse, where the game against Ghana is in full swing. Everyone is pressing their thumbs for the German Team. 25th minute: Mesut Özil makes a solo-run on the Ghanaian goal. Everyone in the clubhouse rises to their feet – arms raised, shouts at their lips. Mesut shoots directly at the keeper. The chance is gone. The watchers in the clubhouse sink back.
Half-time. And there’s still no goal! “My heart beats for the German National Team” says Nevzat Kocakaya. The musician played in a team and knows a thing or two. His verdict on the first half: “Our striker Cacau [Klose was out on suspension] is doing well. He’s all over the place, and wins a lot of balls. I’d bet on him getting a goal.” On defender Per Mertesacker: “He’s disappointing. Loew has got to switch him off.” And Mesut Özil? “He should have made that goal! But perhaps it’ll all work out!”
And how! Mesut becomes the hero of the game, as he scores the 1-0 on the hour-mark. Everyone leaps to their feet, as he strikes and the ball nestles into the back of the net. “And he’s Turkish too!” call out a few of them. Mesut is one of them – their boy – whom they’ve known since he was small. And he’s made the goal! Serdar Özil’s eyes light up. He’s Mesut Özil's cousin. “I’m so proud that the German Team will go through to the last sixteen - and because of his goal!”
Serdar Özil’s eyes light up. He’s Mesut Özil's cousin. “I’m so proud that the German Team will go through to the last sixteen - and because of his goal!”
Club members observe Mesut's Interview with ZDF following the game.
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