crinkly_ears | Mesut Özil: A World Star Returns - The DFB Feature Write-Up & Mesut As Rapper

Mesut Özil: A World Star Returns - The DFB Feature Write-Up & Mesut As Rapper - Again!

Mesut with little Marko Marin, his midfield partner.

It wouldn't be International week without a massive overload of posts on game-day. Kick -off is in just over 2 hours.

I want this up before the game because this feature write-up and the interview in a separate (which I have excerpted from the larger piece) with Jan Delay is quite lovely. It provides a lovely look at what Mesut's life in Bremen was like before he came to Madrid.

Mesut Özil: A World Star Returns.

DFB reporter Steffen Luedeke on Özil's 32 months on the Weser.
Translated by me,

jenny_jenkins
LINK TO THE GERMAN

What are the different animals who make up the "Bremer Stadtmusikanten" (The Town Minstrels of Bremen - based on the tale by the Brother's Grimm)? Mesut Özil thinks about it and then answers evasively. He says he's seen the statues and he liked them - just like the rest of the town. His home in Schwachhausen, the boulevard, the beer-garden on the Weser and of course the Weser-stadion - a favourite place. Players often aren't all that positive about their old clubs. When Özil talks about Werder and Bremen it's clear he couldn't hold them in higher regard.

Sometimes the stars (Constellations) are false. Only 20 years and a well-trained body on the one side. On the other side, youth is slowly draining out of the body. Creaes are decorating the face. The race is lost before it starts, but Thomas Schaaf still picks up his legs to run - to run as fast as he can. After three seconds the battle is lost. Schaaf resigns himself to his fate and bows his head. What must come, must come: Mesut Özil drenches his coach in an obligatory shower of beer.

(This is the moment - with the commentator noting that Thomas Schaaf "is too slow for his boys!"). Over the course of the video, Mesut is interviewed and told he's "Man of the Match (Man des Abends)". His reaction to what should have been utterly unsurprising news is utterly charming)

"Bremen is dear to my heart."

Werder Bremen had just won the DFB Pokal. One goal from Özil in the 58th minute decides the game against Bayer Leverkusen. "I'm very proud of the team. I'm particularly happy with Mesut Özil," says Coach Schaaf. Being drenched in beer has not in any obvious way altered his relationship with his goal-scorer. "One tries to run away. But that's stupid. You get wet either way," says Schaaf.

The triumph at the final in Berlin is the high-point of Mesut Özil's two and a half years for Werder Bremen. But there are many other moments on which the Real star likes to think back on. He scored his first goal for Werder in the Bundesliga, he played his 100th first division game in a Werder jersey. During his time there he won the European Championship with the U21 in Sweden. It was while at Bremen that he joined Germany's Senior National Team. "I had a wonderful time there," he says. Bremen is dear to my heart."

He means the club. He means the city. He means the Bremers. For Özil his time at Werder is more than simply a way-station in his career. Bremen decisively shaped the player and the man. 210 kilometres separate Gelsenkirchen from Bremen - 90 minutes by car - the length of a football game when traffic is good. For Özil, the transfer from Schalke to Bremen was a jump into another world. He had lived 19 years and 3 months of his life in Gelsenkirchen. It's where he grew up. It's where he made first small and then bigger steps in football. First in the "monkey-cage" the now famous football park in Olga Street in Gelsenkirchen-Bulmke. Then with Westfalia 04 Gelsenkirchen, Teutonia Schalke, DJK Falke Gelsenkirchen, Rot-Weiss-Essen - and after 2005 Schalke 04.

New teammates, a new coach and home-sickness

Özil had felt secure in his surroundings, a family-man who had his family around him. He knew every corner, every stone, every face. That ended when his career-path led him to Bremen in January 2008. His first place all on his own, his first household, and he was suddenly all alone at home. "An entirely new situation," he says and doesn't contradict the conclusion that he was raised in Gelsenkirchen but grew up in Bremen.

His family supported him of course. His friends drove to Bremen. And of course he always knew he was supported back home. But still, the transfer to the Weser was a wrench for Özil. New teammates, new coach, new ways of training. For Özil it was a fate (Constellation) that he saw as a challenge and a chance. He took it, successfully fought through the homesickness, and developed himself as a footballer and a person.

Mesut on his first day - described as "so shy, he looked as though he'd slip under the podium."

Özil enjoyed his private moments in Bremen.

In Bremen he set the foundation for the physical effort required to achieve an International career. With fitness coach Benni Kugel - who also works with the National team - he worked on his short-comings. He still benefits from that help today. "The team really took me up wonderfully," he says, while explicitly extending his praise to the entire club. "Coach, manager - everyone who belonged there," he says. Werder as oasis - that's how Özil experienced it. The newling didn't require much time to feel good in the company of his new colleagues. He got along well with Aaron Hunt immediately. Hugo Almeida and later Claudio Pizarro became important people in his life. Also Sebastian Boenisch, with whom he'd played in Schalke's youth squad. "It was good for me that Sebastian was already there," Özil remembers. "He made my arrival much easier."

Özil was then what he is now: reserved but not shy. Calm, not mute. Observant, rather than a participant. Patient, not lethargic. Polite, not pandering. Rather like the way he experienced the people of Bremen. When Özil sits in his home in Madrid's exclusive suburb La Moraleja he thinks back with a smile on his relationship with the people in Bremen. "It was really wonderful," he says. He blended in with his neighbours in his apartment block in Schwachhausen. It wasn't unusual to discuss football with them in the elevator on his way to his top-floor apartment. A few moments, but a bit of the welcome ordinary in the life of a Bundesliga star.

On the Weser he could get around quite normally, without exciting hysteria. Of course people recognized him. Of course he was asked for autographs. Of course he had to pose for photos with fans. But Bremers had a fine understanding of the times when Özil wanted to be left alone or wanted to be private.

Özil enjoyed it - this calm in Bremen helped with his development. The stars (Constellation) were aligned in terms of the sport too. In his first year Özil could develop under the shadow of Diego and with Thomas Schaaf he knew he had a coach who knew how to develop young players to the top.

Özil: "Without Werder I wouldn't be the player I am today."

He played 12 games in the second round for Werder in 2008. They achieved second place and qualified for the Champions League. Then 2009 became his year. Within 7 weeks, Özil and Bremen reached three finals. After the 2:1 defeat to Shaktar Donetsk in the final of the UEFA cup there were two victories: first the win in the DFB cup, and at the end of June success with Germany's U21 at the European Championships. His first International title.

After two and a half years, Werder and Özil parted ways. Real came calling and Özil, newly annointed third-place-holder at the World Cup, said yes. Once again a new challenge, once again he accepted it. For his career there was no possible higher calling. From Bremen to Madrid. Özil traded a grounded existence in Northern Germany for life with the Galacticos. But he was prepared: his time in Bremen had trained and matured him for his switch abroad, for his new adventure with the biggest club in the world. "Without Werder I wouldn't have become the player I am today," says Özil. "I'm very grateful to the club. I'll never forget what Bremen gave me."

It goes the other way around too. When coaches talk about players who have left their teams they talk about them differently. There is something in the tone of voice sometimes. Sometimes something that was good goes sour. It's different with Thomas Schaaf and Mesut Özil. "We might have achieved better things if Mesut were still with us," says Schaaf. "He is a fantastic footballer. He can do things with the ball that others just can't."

This fantastic footballer has never lost his connection with Bremen. He telephones back and forth with his old teammates, asks after Hunt and Pizarro and wants to know how they are doing in Bremen. He has not yet visited the city since his transfer to Real. "Unfortunately," he says. His time is taken up, and when Real gives him a couple of days off Özil visits his family in Gelsenkirchen. It was all the more reason to look forward to a meeting against France. "I'm glad to be returning," he says. I'm looking forward to playing in front of the fans at the Weser Stadion."

And a Brief Excerpt From Jan Delay's Interview Today!

Jan Delay: With Mesut on the Microphone
LINK TO THE GERMAN
Translated by me,

jenny_jenkins

He still wears the jersey. “Özil” is still on the back with the Number 11 and “Werder Bremen”. Beneath it is Ozil’s signature. Admittedly this is not a new outfit – not for a year and a half now. But it doesn’t matter. It holds memories of a personal encounter. Jan Delay, musician, and Mesut Özil, football professional. On the pitch, together in the studio. It was in 2010 in the New Year. In a few weeks the World Cup would be starting in South Africa. Özil was still a Bremer. Delay came on the train from Hamburg. They kicked it around together on Werder’s training ground, and then they stood in front of the microphone. Özil received a single stanza in the song “Large” with the lovely text: “We stink of fish, because we are Werderaner”.* “Mesut was incredible, a very shy, very dear, very well-brought up fellow,” says Jan Delay. When I remember that it was the first time he’d ever rapped, and was filmed, and that he did it in front of 50 pairs of eyes – well then. He did very well indeed!”

*Bremen is a major port town on the Heanseatic at the mouth of the Weser River. Werder fans are often taunted for "stinking like fish" - a slogan they've happily adopted themselves. When a Werder player scores in the Weser Stadion, a fog-horn goes off.

References to Schaaf's ability to nurture young talent are quite true: he works on a very limited budget and Werder are considered the geniuses of the transfer window in the Bundesliga. Bremen is also well-known to be a laid-back and easy place for its footballers to live.

And just for kicks -

- Mesut's most insane performance for Werder Bremen. 4 assists (two for Hugo Almeida!). 1 goal. The two minute highlight reel.

Freiburg 0 Werder Bremen 6

This was an away game - which explains why the Werder Bremen players are dancing up and down with the fans on the pitch after the game - it's the Bundesliga's way of thanking the away fans for coming.

Unbelievably, there was a twenty minute period at the beginning of the game where it seemed as though Freiburg was dominating!

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