Mesut Özil has a couple of things resting on his shoulders. As the signing who obliterated the Arsenal transfer record in September, he is the symbol of a new era, the reason why the club and its supporters have dared to believe that things can be different this season. Eight years without a trophy have weighed heavily.
But club responsibility pales. The 25-year-old is a symbol of the new Germany, the nation’s most exciting player, and he is prominent among the reasons why they expect to win the World Cup. The eight tournament failures since Euro 96 have weighed heavily.
Özil’s mind is clear. His demeanour is supremely relaxed. The shiny black studs in each of his ears represent the only visible trappings of his A-list fame and it is tempting to wonder whether anything can fluster him.
“I have played for Real Madrid, which is such a big club and where the pressure is so huge because you have to go and, really, win absolutely every game,” he says.
“There is no game where people don’t expect you to win. So, having played there for three years, pressure is nothing that would scare me. That’s why I don’t really feel the pressure.”
Özil shrugs and smiles boyishly. "The second thing is that what I do on a daily basis is what I love. I love playing football. So I go out to play football and I don't really feel pressure. Of course there are some days when things just don't work out but that doesn't have anything to do with pressure."
Three languages
Some people have described Özil as shy but he does not come across like that. He answers in German – one of his three languages, together with Turkish and Spanish – yet he understands the questions in English and he does not wait for the interpreter. His English is better than he likes to let on but it is a big step to begin using it in interviews.
Özil is not demonstrative. He is quiet, devout, humble. Ivan Gazidis, the Arsenal chief executive, tells the story of when Özil first arrived and insisted on being taken around the offices at the Emirates to meet every member of staff.
There is a steel to him, an inner-belief that has underpinned his rise from Gelsenkirchen street footballer to card-carrying superstar and it comes to the fore when he talks of his ambition.
The World Cup draw, Özil suggests, was little more than a sideshow because Germany plan to beat the very best and so the order of their opponents was largely irrelevant. They have Portugal, Ghana and the US in Group G. And nor does he blanche at talking up Arsenal’s potential to win the title.
“We are going to Brazil with the aim of winning the tournament,” he says. “We will have to play some good teams anyway so if we play them early on or later, it doesn’t really matter. We have to beat them all.”
Özil is asked how he might feel about facing England and there is the only flash of confusion when he does not get the predictable joke about penalty shoot-outs.
In Özil’s defence, when he has faced England in competitive matches, the Germans have not needed penalties. He was part of the team who routed England 4-1 in Bloemfontein at the 2010 World Cup while, in 2009, he cantered into the English nation’s consciousness when he orchestrated the 4-0 dismantling of Stuart Pearce’s under-21s in the European Championship final.
"Anybody can miss a penalty," Özil says, and he did so recently in the Champions League against Marseille. It was not costly, and it allowed Arsene Wenger, the Arsenal manager, to joke about how England's World Cup preparations had been boosted. Özil smiled at that.
Bogey opponent
The interpreter clarifies the question. "Ah, I know that we are a bogey opponent for England," Özil says, "but, from my side, I can just say that it doesn't really matter too much."
Championship talk has seemed off-limits at Arsenal, despite their encouraging form and the four-point lead they have opened at the top of the Premier League. Everyone at the club has been burned by previous lapses and Özil highlights the need to tread warily, to see danger at every turn in a division where shock results have lost their capacity to shock.
Özil can see what is bubbling at Arsenal, he can feel the momentum and he knows what is possible. The burgeoning optimism does battle with the cliched yet necessary disclaimers in his assessment.
“We are definitely on a good path and we have the potential to win the title, even if it is a bit too early to comment on this,” Özil says. “We want to continue developing our game. We have the potential to win the league but we will have to see.
“What I can say is our confidence is very high and we are very strong. You can see that whoever comes from off the bench, that player just works in the team. There is no loss of quality when people come from off the bench.
“The team has to work well as a team and this is what is working at the moment, this is what is making me confident.
“Everything is really perfect right now. We have some very talented players and this is why I think we can achieve something great. We have to develop further to achieve this but we can achieve it.”
Özil knows what it takes to buck trends and emerge triumphant over a gruelling season. He helped Jose Mourinho’s Madrid break Barcelona’s dominance and win the Spanish title in 2012 with 100 points; a monument to mental toughness as much as technical quality.
Özil’s other career honours have been the 2011 Copa del Rey with Madrid and the 2009 German Cup with Werder Bremen, when he scored the winner in the final against Bayer Leverkusen.
Özil’s confidence is based, in no small measure, on the Wenger factor.
It was the manager who sweet-talked him (in German) into swapping Madrid for Arsenal on the eve of the transfer deadline and it is Wenger who has given him the platform to express himself.
Wenger knows how to handle artists, and Özil has responded to the faith that has been placed in him. He needs this, he thrives on it, and it was obvious it had gone under Carlo Ancelotti at Madrid, even if the decision to sell him for €50 million drew an incredulous response from many of the club's players.
At last, he has his man
Wenger had tried to sign Özil before the player left his first club, Schalke, for Bremen in 2008 and, again, when he departed Bremen for Madrid in 2010. At last, he has his man.
“I had long conversations with Wenger before I joined Real and that’s how I got to know about Arsenal, and the way that they like to sign talented players who can move the ball well,” Özil says.
“That’s really important for me. In the end, I did decide to go to Real and I had three wonderful years there. I had a great manager in Jose Mourinho, who really helped me. He was always there when I needed him.
“I’m really proud to be here now and the most important thing was the trust the boss put in me. He convinced me to sign and I could not be any happier to be here. This has really been the perfect step for me. Wenger is one of the best managers. This is why we are so successful and why we are on a good path.”
Ozil already feels like a hero to Arsenal supporters, even though other players have had better seasons so far, namely Aaron Ramsey, Olivier Giroud and Per Mertesacker.
After an explosive start, Özil has been quiet at times but his impact has arguably transcended his performances. His arrival destroyed the damaging perception that Wenger would never spend the truly big money and it has also lifted a squad who, like the fans, had craved a statement signing.
Özil is a rarity who is liked by all supporters, largely because of the fantasy in his game, the purity and smoothness of his touch. He can conjure moments that make the efforts of others seem futile. He has even made the umlaut cool.
There is nothing negative about him, nothing nasty. He has helped unlock something at Arsenal and his relish for the challenge is plain.
“It’s been quite tough because there are so many competitions that we play in,” he says. “As we say in Germany, there are ‘English weeks’. You just have games, on and on and on, but on the other hand I’m really happy to have these possibilities to prove myself.
"I'm a person who prefers to play games rather than train. I don't know how it will be to play over Christmas and the new year, as I'm used to having the winter break; one or even two weeks off but I'm looking forward to it.
Great atmospheres
"The game is more physical than I am used to but for an offensive player, it is very interesting to play in such great atmospheres. At every ground, the atmosphere is just phenomenal. I also have to say that the fans here are very fair.
“The Premier League is the best league in the world, it’s so strong. The smaller teams love to try their chances against the big ones and this is why the game goes back and forth. That can be strenuous, tough on you and your body but I really love it.”
Özil has settled in London, helped by Arsenal’s German bloc – Mertesacker, Lukas Podolski and Serge Gnabry – and a particularly focused search for accommodation.
“I took one week where I really went house-hunting . . . I looked at quite a few and we have found one. I am not the type who wants to stay in a hotel because we travel so much.”
He has also found mosques. Özil’s Islamic faith is fundamental to him and it is one of the reasons why this third-generation Turk has been promoted as a prime example of successful integration within German society. “I pray almost every day and you can see that I pray on the pitch. I pray in the dressing room. That is just part of my life.”
Özil talks affectionately about the "Arsenal family" and it goes beyond the walls of the dressingroom and into the local community. He visited a project this week funded by the Arsenal Foundation, which uses football as a therapy to help victims of torture. The visit came before the club's charity match-day against Everton tomorrow when Wenger and the squad will donate a day's wages to fund more projects that help transform lives.
Unspeakable horrors
It is quite a moment for these men to enjoy a kick-around with Özil; they have survived unspeakable horrors before arriving in the UK and are attempting to rebuild their lives. It is easy to marvel at football's power, as Özil treats the audience to his technique inside the court and the session takes him back to the days when he would play in something similar as a boy.
“It was called the monkey cage,” Özil says, “and the surface was much rougher than this one. There were stones and rocks so it really hurt when you fell down. The good thing with these cages is that the ball never goes out and so the game goes on and on. It did teach me something and, most of the time, I played against older kids so that shaped me, too. When I go back now and I see the little kids, they remind me of when I was just a small boy.”
Özil’s desire has remained constant. “I am a very calm person outside of the pitch, as you might have noticed. I am not very loud. I am a family person and I savour life. I am very grateful for what I have but when I enter the pitch I am a different personality,not as calm and I am a bit louder. I know what I want.”
Over the remainder of the season, Özil intends to grab it.
Arsenal’s match against Everton is dedicated to The Arsenal Foundation. Arsene Wenger and the first-team squad will donate a day’s wages to support a variety of projects that reach young people to transform lives. www.arsenal.com/thearsenalfoundation.
– Guardian Service
