It Was a Mistake Including Mesut Ozil, Says Team Manager

Germany team manager, Oliver Bierhoff, recently expressed his views that it was mistake on the national team’s part to include Mesut Ozil in the squad.

Football news: The Arsenal star failed to impress in the World Cup

The midfielder from Arsenal failed to bring any sparkle as the reigning champions won one of their three group games and crashed out prematurely from the group stage of the tournament.

Before the onset of the tournament, Ozil’s along with IIkay Gundogan’s loyalty was put to question as they posed for a picture with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey.

Bierhoff told in an interview to Welt, "We have never forced players of the German national squad to do something, but always tried to convince them of a cause. We did not succeed with Mesut.

"In that respect, considerations should have been made about whether to leave out Ozil from a sporting point of view. I believe the fact that Mesut and Ilkay took the pictures did not distract the squad so much. But the debate afterwards did."

Later several requests were made from media and DFB (German Football Federation) to Ozil to comment regarding the controversy, but he decided to remain silent.

"Mesut did not say what was expected of him, due to certain and obvious reasons. Ilkay, on the other hand, has spoken and also opened up a lot. Despite that he was still harshly criticised the same way," Bierhoff added.