At Long Last - Mesut Özil's GQ Interview Fully Translated!

[jenny-jenkins.livejournal.com]

Mesut Özil: His Year.

In 2012 a boy from Gelsenkirchen is supposed to make us happy. Mesut Özil carries the weight of expectation.
Article written in December, 2011
Translated by jenny_jenkins

Mesut Özil's cage lies partially shaded, and from far above everything looks quiet and peaceful as though it were a rest-home for battered pitch-grass. It is a typical Autumn day in Madrid. Blue sky. 25 degrees. Two men, as small as figurines belonging to a model train set, control the long metal arms attached to heat lamps that throw an orange light along the ground where the sun's rays cannot reach. The only other sound is the murmur of tourists who wander through the blue and white stands as though they are in a museum, gazing straight down in awe. At the weekend, they will have gone, along with the lamps and the grounds-keeper. Instead, 80 000 people with the expectations of an opera audience will be sitting in the stands. At Real Madrid it's never just about winning but about the aesthetics of the game.

Small wonder then that Mesut Özil's public have taken him into their hearts from the first moment. The 23 year old does things with the ball - so lightly and elegantly - like an aria by Mozart. He is no runner, no strategist, and no fighter. He is a player. It was like that before, when he practiced his art on the red sand in the football enclosure surrounded by wire fence in Gelsenkirchen. It's like that now, where he's come into his own in the holy of holies of football: the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. After one of his first outings the sports paper Marca" wrote: "Özil uplifts the Bernabeu." His new cage.**

The Second Year Is Always The Hardest

In the meantime, Özil's world has divided into two. In his first year in Spain he managed to make himself an undisputed starter. As directer of the German National Team he received - most recently in the game against the Netherlands in November - unbelievable reviews. In Madrid however, he's felt in recent weeks the curse of the truly gifted: from hangers-on there is no forgiveness. "Özil did nothing during the whole match" complained As after his performance against Valencia. The second year, they say, is always the hardest. That seems to be true at Real Madrid. Özil's relationship with Real Madrid could go either way. He could conquer all of Europe. Or he could lose his place in the cage. Özil is aware that the first year of his new life was only the overture. "I've shown what I can do and what potential I have. But it does not matter. I need to continue improving, and I work hard at it."

He is sitting in front of a cup of coffee on the terrace of the Villa Magna hotel not ten minutes distance from the stadium, the heat-lamps and the whispering fans. The morning practice has just ended and his freshly washed hair smells of fruit: something between strawberries and melons. All the photographs for this story are shot. As he is discussing his first year and a half at Madrid he still gushes about it: the football mania of the Madridistas, the way fans stop him on the street and talk at him at such a rapid-fire pace he can't understand a word until eventually everyone just laughs. And again and again - the stadium. "To play in the Bernabeu is an indescribable feeling. I can still remember my first outing," he says. "A friendly match in August. I had heard a great deal about the atmosphere but when I stood before this wonderful audience I was covered in goose-bumps. I felt as though I was in a dream."

Witty And Superior Performances

Entirely unimpressed by the setting or its expectations, or the glorious history of a club that may no longer be the best in the world but is certainly the most glamorous, or by the fact that in Madrid he is under the continuous gaze of multiple sports dailies, he quickly becomes a central figure in the Madrid concert. He stands on a stage with the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo and is well on his way to having what he said he wanted in an interview with GQ in autumn of 2010: "I want to be one of the best footballers in the world."

The World Championship in South Africa had just ended, where he had provided some outstanding performances and had become partially answerable for the idea that German football now represented something cool and witty instead of mere strong-arm tactics or endurance. At the time, no one knew if the team would be able to maintain this level over a longer period of time. Today we know they can, and it is also to Özil's credit in some ways that the German National Team has managed something no other team has ever managed before: they won 10 out of 10 qualifying matches. In 9 of these matches, Özil was a starter, slicing apart opposition defences with his precise passing, scoring five goals himself. Since then the question has changed: could it be this team is as good as the best Germany ever produced - the legendary team of 1972 that, led by Guenter Netzer, won the European Championship?

"We will be European Champions"

Özil is convinced that the team is ready for a title 40 years later. "We learned a great deal from our loss to Spain in the World Cup semi-final. Since then we have not lost a game. I believe in this team. We are attuned to one another on the pitch and we can beat anyone." It would be the fourth European title after 1972, 1980 and 1996. Only this time it wouldn't only be a sporting triumph. It would be the first title from a team that no longer has its roots solely in Saxony or Swabia, but also in Turkey and Tunisia. Özil, whose grandfather arrived in Gelsenkirchen from the small village of Hisiroglu would be one of its faces.

To lift the trophy in Kiev on July 1 - perhaps after a final involving Iker Casillas or Sergio Ramos, his colleagues at Madrid - it would be as though the moment had been made for him. It would mark the end of his metamorphosis from a super-talent, who was often criticized for his inconsistencies at Schalke or Werder Bremen, to world star. Sometimes Özil and Sami Khedira sit after practice with Casillas and Ramos in the locker-room. The goal-keeper and the defensive player are two stalwarts of the team that has twice in the last two tournaments stopped Germany - from winning the title in 2008 and from getting to the final two years later. They are no longer certain they'll manage it a third time. "They're always coming up to us and showing us photographs of the trophy," explains Özil. "We always respond the same way. 'We will be European Champions - you know it yourselves.' And then we all laugh." Until the European Championships get underway in Poland and Ukraine there are several more months during which all must stay focused on the present. The city is thirsting after a big title. That Barcelona has won all the big trophies in recent times still hurts.

From Highs To Lows

It's at this moment - when the team is trying to quench that thirst - that Özil is threatened with the loss of his coach's support. Mourinho is like a father, says Özil, but for the first time he has to deal with the fact that this is a father who punishes by withdrawing affection. "Özil is a brilliant player. Every time he gets the ball he does fantastic things with it," Mourinho says. "But now he has to reach the next level. Last season his performance was better. We need more from him." Özil watches from the bench as Kaka takes his place. Marca writes: "One can see that Özil is not in a good place" and hails Kaka as "one of three players" with an assured starting place. From highs to lows - at Real, things happen quickly. It's the first dip he's experienced at Madrid. Though one doesn't get the impression that he's losing his insouciance. "I can't always give a perfect performance. I am only human. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not." He ends the meeting with a polite farewell, gets behind the wheel of his car, and drives away. Anyone who has learned to play soccer in a cage knows full well that many things are allowed while only one is forbidden: giving up.

 

The Video - GQ Meets Mesut Ozil

(Alternative Title: How To Try And Fail To Photoshop The Welpenschutz* Out Of Mesut Ozil)

At the beginning you think you're in a dream, because so many world-class players all play in the same club - Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, or Casillas, Ramos - and the first time I came into the locker room I was naturally a little nervous. But after a while it works out because everyone is so friendly, and they help me, naturally, a great deal and I'm just proud to be allowed to play at Madrid.

Naturally the atmosphere in Schalke or Bremen is just as nice, but in the Bernabeu the atmosphere is really something else. They are madder about football, if I can put it that way and...

...it doesn't matter where we land. Thousand of fans are waiting for us in the airport. I'd never seen anything like it.

The team has become much younger, there are lots of young players who really have a lot of potential and you can see that. It doesn't matter if someone is missing, another player can step in and do the job. We are very attuned to each other when we play, we are hungry for success, it's a young team that wants to win titles.

Well, my ambition is to win titles and to become one of the best players in the world and I work very hard on myself so that I can fulfill all my wishes.

**A reference to the now famous "monkey-cage" - the wire-fence enclosed space where Ozil learned to play football.

*A definition of the German word Welpenschutz and how it applies to Mesut may be found HERE

Love to andriy_7, as always.

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