![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
jenny-jenkins.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
crinkly_earsWhat Does He Do In His Spare Time? Fun & Games With Mesut Ozil!
This post examines Mesut's hobbies - as revealed in feature articles and interviews.
Mesut Özil: “My Chess Secret” - From Mesut’s Inescapable Destiny - Bild Zeitung Online – June, 2010
SPORT BILD: Mr. Özil - most professional football players like to play poker. You like to play chess. Why?
Mesut Özil (21): It’s always been a little secret (kleines Geheimnes) of mine, but Chess is one of my favourite games.
Bild: How did you get into it?
Özil: When I was in the seventh grade, and my former teacher - he was a chess-league player - played with us constantly in school. I’ve kept it up and it helps me on the football pitch.
Also backgammon!
Bild: Lukas Podolski once said: "Football is like chess - only without the dice." Joking aside: How does the chess-board help your game?
Özil: Chess is a game of strategy. You can control it the way you can control the play on a football pitch.
Bild: What do you learn from it?
Özil: In chess, the opponent always has to be a few moves ahead to win. I try to bring this strategic thinking to the pitch. When the ball comes to me, I often know where I need to pass it.
Two. WELT ONLINE: June, 2010
WELT ONLINE: The word “trust” is always associated with the National Team. Why is that?
Özil: We are like a family here together. If someone accidentally knocks the ball out of bounds during practice it’s not “get it back yourself – and quick.” We help each other. We support each other, I mean. We all get along, even though we have been together for two months. We play table tennis, billiards or on the Play station together. We’re always together.
Welt: And which game do you play in your spare time?
Özil: I’m really good at table tennis.
Welt: Do you play offensively or defensively?
Özil: I prefer to smash – so offensive! Just like on the football pitch.
Three. Bild Zeitung – The Following Extracts From An Article Published September 7, 2009
(Perhaps the best description of Mesut’s interviews ever given) – He’s very modest. He’s also shy and speaks so carefully – as though he’s afraid to make a mistake. And he constantly tells you how happy he is – and always praises the performance of the team...
Mesut: “For some reason, I was always able (as a child) to make the ball do anything I wanted.”
There are 40 pairs of shoes under the stairs...
He can beat them all...on the Play Station and on the pitch...
He likes to go to the Black Sea for vacation: “That’s where my family is from.”
When asked to comment on his relationship with his “close friend” Anna-Maria: “We know each other...”
He likes to go to the movies, and listens to Turkish music and American Hip-Hop. He likes to watch “TV Total” on television because he’s a fan of Stefan Raab. He really likes Jackie Chan films. In front of cameras, Özil is shy. With his friends he’s entirely different. He tells jokes, chatters anecdotes and is very out-going.
And on his family and their visits: “I need to have people around me who are close to me to be happy.”
His father: “We fill up his refrigerator when we visit.”
Mesut: “Going to the super-market – no it’s just not my thing.”
He speaks Turkish as well as German. So what makes him German? - ‘I’m always punctual and methodical. It’s awfully important that things be clean...’”
On his profession: If he hadn’t been a footballer, he would perhaps have been a Real Estate agent.
Four. Bild – March 3, 2010
BILD: You are a tremendous footballer on the Playstation. For which clubs do you play.?
Mesut (speaking words that haunt him to this day!): Different ones. Mostly the German National Team and if I’m playing a club - Barcelona.”
BILD: You play Barcelona on your Playstation?
Özil (intelligently hedging his bets): Naturally. But also Chelsea and Inter Mailand. (Note: Inter Milan wanted Özil at one point, but couldn’t afford him after buying Wesley Sneijder.)
BILD: Can you learn something about football off of a Playstation?
Özil: I think so. You have to be lightening fast to get a goal, or to dribble and pass. It helps.
"Out of 100 games I win 99!"
________________________________________
Mesut’s Chess abilities also got some attention from the Konrad Adenauer Gymnasium (Grammar-school)
On its website, the school’s chess club boasts of receiving a signed jersey from the National Team and notes that two members of the National Team/Coaching staff play chess – Oliver Bierhoff and Mesut Özil!
Mesut at home in Madrid
Ray Hudson: “Just look at that pass people. He sees it, in that wonderful computer-game of a brain of his – and then he does it.”
This post examines Mesut's hobbies - as revealed in feature articles and interviews.
Mesut Özil: “My Chess Secret” - From Mesut’s Inescapable Destiny - Bild Zeitung Online – June, 2010
SPORT BILD: Mr. Özil - most professional football players like to play poker. You like to play chess. Why?
Mesut Özil (21): It’s always been a little secret (kleines Geheimnes) of mine, but Chess is one of my favourite games.
Bild: How did you get into it?
Özil: When I was in the seventh grade, and my former teacher - he was a chess-league player - played with us constantly in school. I’ve kept it up and it helps me on the football pitch.
Also backgammon!
Bild: Lukas Podolski once said: "Football is like chess - only without the dice." Joking aside: How does the chess-board help your game?
Özil: Chess is a game of strategy. You can control it the way you can control the play on a football pitch.
Bild: What do you learn from it?
Özil: In chess, the opponent always has to be a few moves ahead to win. I try to bring this strategic thinking to the pitch. When the ball comes to me, I often know where I need to pass it.
Two. WELT ONLINE: June, 2010
WELT ONLINE: The word “trust” is always associated with the National Team. Why is that?
Özil: We are like a family here together. If someone accidentally knocks the ball out of bounds during practice it’s not “get it back yourself – and quick.” We help each other. We support each other, I mean. We all get along, even though we have been together for two months. We play table tennis, billiards or on the Play station together. We’re always together.
Welt: And which game do you play in your spare time?
Özil: I’m really good at table tennis.
Welt: Do you play offensively or defensively?
Özil: I prefer to smash – so offensive! Just like on the football pitch.
Three. Bild Zeitung – The Following Extracts From An Article Published September 7, 2009
(Perhaps the best description of Mesut’s interviews ever given) – He’s very modest. He’s also shy and speaks so carefully – as though he’s afraid to make a mistake. And he constantly tells you how happy he is – and always praises the performance of the team...
Mesut: “For some reason, I was always able (as a child) to make the ball do anything I wanted.”
There are 40 pairs of shoes under the stairs...
He can beat them all...on the Play Station and on the pitch...
He likes to go to the Black Sea for vacation: “That’s where my family is from.”
When asked to comment on his relationship with his “close friend” Anna-Maria: “We know each other...”
He likes to go to the movies, and listens to Turkish music and American Hip-Hop. He likes to watch “TV Total” on television because he’s a fan of Stefan Raab. He really likes Jackie Chan films. In front of cameras, Özil is shy. With his friends he’s entirely different. He tells jokes, chatters anecdotes and is very out-going.
And on his family and their visits: “I need to have people around me who are close to me to be happy.”
His father: “We fill up his refrigerator when we visit.”
Mesut: “Going to the super-market – no it’s just not my thing.”
He speaks Turkish as well as German. So what makes him German? - ‘I’m always punctual and methodical. It’s awfully important that things be clean...’”
On his profession: If he hadn’t been a footballer, he would perhaps have been a Real Estate agent.
Four. Bild – March 3, 2010
BILD: You are a tremendous footballer on the Playstation. For which clubs do you play.?
Mesut (speaking words that haunt him to this day!): Different ones. Mostly the German National Team and if I’m playing a club - Barcelona.”
BILD: You play Barcelona on your Playstation?
Özil (intelligently hedging his bets): Naturally. But also Chelsea and Inter Mailand. (Note: Inter Milan wanted Özil at one point, but couldn’t afford him after buying Wesley Sneijder.)
BILD: Can you learn something about football off of a Playstation?
Özil: I think so. You have to be lightening fast to get a goal, or to dribble and pass. It helps.
"Out of 100 games I win 99!"
________________________________________
Mesut’s Chess abilities also got some attention from the Konrad Adenauer Gymnasium (Grammar-school)
On its website, the school’s chess club boasts of receiving a signed jersey from the National Team and notes that two members of the National Team/Coaching staff play chess – Oliver Bierhoff and Mesut Özil!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}