It's all fun and games 'til someone gets racist on Twitter...

[renee shah]

Özil reports Twitter user for racial abuse

PEPE ÍÑIGUEZ. Hamburg 06/19/2012

Real Madrid's German international Mesut Özil has reported the owner of a Twitter account for racial abuse, after the player was accused of not being German, according to the Bild newspaper.

The player's lawyer - Sascha Beumer – decided to take legal action after an unknown Twitter user posted messages using a private account during the Denmark-Germany game, stating that the player was not German and criticising his surname – which is of Muslim descent.

"Özil isn't German! A piece of paper doesn't change your origins", were the unknown user’s words in their first message, then adding that nobody with a non-German name should play in the German team.

Soon after, amid the protests - both online and offline -, Twitter decided to block the user's account from where the racist comments came from.

The Real Madrid player's father and agent - Mustafa Özil – totally agreed with his son's decision to report the incident: "it's important to say that you can't get away with saying things like that. This person has overstepped the mark".

Özil – who has played in all three of Germany's games so far in the 2012 Euros – was born in Gelsenkirchen (West Germany), while his parents come from Turkey. The Real Madrid player has always defended his German status.

Comments

[tragedyofempty.livejournal.com]

This is the dumbest thing ever! I'm American because I was born here and I choose to identify this way. I could say 'well I'm German and Spanish' because I can trace my roots to both Germany and Spain. But that doesn't make me less American. It's like Nuri decided to play for Turkey though he was born in Germany.

People are dumb. I'm glad Mesut's people are handling this. They pick on him because he's not vocal about shit

[lovinthelads.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Even "native americans" came over from Asia.

And I'm such a mutt, I don't even know what to call myself. German-Welsh-English-Irish-American?

[tragedyofempty.livejournal.com]

I just know german is my dominate, but I can trace a few ancestors back to spain. Everything else is mutt.

[lovinthelads.livejournal.com]

I tend to claim German because it's my cultural heritage in many ways. The area of Ohio I am from tends to eat/celebrate in Germanic traditions.