Arsenal midfielder Mesut Oezil's adviser has
criticized several German football players and defended the former
international's controversial photo with Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan.
"Off the pitch he made no mistake. It stays that way," Erkut Soeguet
told the German football magazine 11Freunde.
Oezil quit the German national team in the aftermath of the Erdogan
controversy and Germany's early elimination from the World Cup. In a
statement at the time, he said he would no longer play for Germany
while "I have this feeling of racism and disrespect."
Soeguet said subsequent statements on Oezil's decision from former
team-mates Manuel Neuer, Thomas Mueller and Toni Kroos were
"disappointing and out of place."
Kroos had said in an interview last month with Bild newspaper that
Oezil's reference to racism was "nonsense." Kroos added: "I think
that he himself knows that racism does not exist within the national
team and the DFB (German football federation)."
However Soeguet said Oezil had not spoken of racism in the team, and
added that coach Joachim Loew had also "defended himself against a
charge that has never been raised."
Oezil "was racially attacked not by the team, but by the middle of
society - the DFB should have protected him," he said.