Even though he’s not having a great time at the moment for his current club, Mesut Özil has been for many years a key player for the teams where he has been playing. Whether we’re talking about Germany National Team, Arsenal or Real Madrid, the Turkish footballer impressed a lot of fans and football specialists with his playmaker abilities.
But even so, being a great footballer doesn’t make you worthy of saying offensive things in the public. Thus, Özil has been removed from all Chnese versions of Pro Evolution Soccer 2020 for expressing ‘undesired’ thoughts on a social network.
Ozil spoke about the treatment of Uighur Muslims in China
The Arsenal midfielder couldn’t be forgiven by the strict laws from China since he posted a poem on social media where he was criticizing the treatment of the Uighur Muslims (a Turkish ethnic group) from the Asian country. Having Turkish origins and Muslim confession, Ozil was obviously bothered by the way the Chinese government is treating the above mentioned minority. The notorious footballer also criticized how the Muslim countries in general dealt with the issue of the ethnic group being mistreated in China.
Japanese company Konami produces the PES games. NetEase is the series’ publisher in China, and it stated on Wednesday that Mesut Ozil would be removed from all the PES titles. The publisher explains the decision in a funny way:
The German player Ozil posted an extreme statement about China on social media,
The speech hurt the feelings of Chinese fans and violated the sports’ spirit of love and peace. We do not understand, accept, or forgive this.
But the bad news doesn’t stop here for Ozil. The Chinese Football Association also said that the footballer’s comment is unacceptable, and it decided to remove from the schedule of CCTV program the broadcasting of Arsenal’s match against Manchester City.
