Former Arsenal and Real Madrid footballer Mesut Ozil has transferred to politics after he joined the party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The retired German midfielder, 36, was called central decision and management during a party congress at the ruling AK Party (AKP).
Ozil, who is of Turkish descent, later received criticism in his career because of his relationship with Mr. Erdogan.
He withdrew from the German national team in 2018, five years before his wider retirement of the competition, after a photo of him met the Turkish president in London, caused a stir.
Reinhard Grindel, who at the time was the head of the German football federation, accused the players to allow himself to be “exploited” for political purposes by the Lord Erdogan.
Some German politicians interviewed the loyalty of Ozil to Germany, which suggests that he had to be removed from the national team in 2018.
In his position about retiring international football, Ozil suggested that his critics were racist and that the “photo we made had no political intentions” and “was about respecting the highest office of the country of my family” .
Ozil married Amine Gulse in Istanbul the next summer, with Mr. Erdogan present at the wedding.
Erdogan has chaired Turkey for more than two decades – as Prime Minister since 2003 and president since 2014.
His critics say that he has made Turkey in an autocracy and eroded the rights of people, after he had introduced a new system in 2018 that the Prime Minister's office abolished and concentrated most powers in the hands of the President.
Ozil, who won the World Cup with Germany in 2014, left Fenerbahce for Turkish side in 2021 before he moved to Istanbul Basaksehir in 2022, where he retired a year later.
Ozil is just the newest athlete to try politics.
Another highly decorated football player to switch is former Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Monaco and AC Milan striker George Weah, who became president of Liberia in 2018.
The then-51-year-old was the first democratically elected leader of the country since 1944, after a mandate to stop corruption and create jobs. He lost the next elections to 79-year-old Joseph Boakai last month.
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan van Pakistan, who was sentenced to 14 years old in a corruption case in the country last month, was initially a cricket player in the 1970s.
The controversial 72-year-old captain Pakistan to World Cup Glory in 1992, who told his teammates famous to fight as “in the corner tigers”.
Image: Imran Khan. Pic: Reuters
Multiple World Heavyweight Boxing champion Vitali Klitschko was chosen in 2014 as mayor of the Ukrainian capital Kiev Kyiv, just a year after he hung up his gloves.
The 53-year-old has stayed in the post because the country has defended itself against Russian aggression for three years.
In 2021, boxing legend Manny Pacquiao withdrew from the sport to concentrate on his campaign as president of the Philippines.
The now 46-year-old had less success than the aforementioned athletes, who admit the presidential race of 2022 to Bongbong Marcos.
Romario, one of the most productive goal scorers in football history for Brazil, has been a member of the Senate of the country since 2015 and ended his long gaming career in 2008.
He supposedly did this about 1,000 goals for his 23-year career and won the World Cup 1994.
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