The Premier League footballers met with the Turkish President during his recent trip to London.
(L-R) Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan, Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil, Turkish President Recep Erdogan and Everton forward Cenk Tosun (Photo: AFP)
The German FA (DFB) have released a statement in which they have criticised Mesut Ozil and Ilkay Gundogan for meeting with Turkish President Recep Erdogan during his visit to London.
Ozil, who plays for Premier League side Arsenal, and Gundogan, who plies his trade for the reigning champions Manchester City, had met the Tukish Premier in the English capital along with Everton and Turkey forward Cenk Tosun.
While both Ozil and Gundogan play for Die Mannschaft, they are of Turkish descent and perhaps that is why they took the ill-advised move of meeting the 64-year-old President.
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DFB president Reinhard Grinded said: “The DFB of course respects the special situation for our players with migrant backgrounds, but football and the DFB stands for values that Mr. Erdogan does not sufficiently respect. Therefore, it is not a good thing that our internationals have let themselves be exploited for his election campaign stunt. It certainly hasn’t helped the DFB’s integration efforts.”
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Erdogan is seen as an authoritative figure in his homeland, having come to power with the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2014.
His government has been rocked by a number of scandals of late and have repeatedly been accused of crushing voices of dissent.
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DFB team coordinator Oliver Bierhoff stated: “I still have absolutely no doubts about Mesut and Ilkay’s commitment to playing for the Germany national team and how much they identify with our values. They were unaware of the symbolism of these pictures, but we cannot endorse it, and we will discuss the matter with the players.”
Ozil and Gundogan are expected to play a major role in Germany’s exploits at the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and will look to put this controversy behind them when they pull on the Die Mannschaft jersey.
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