Revealed: Why Ozil refused Arsenal pay cut

Robin Bairner

• 31 Mar 2022 15:47 BST
• 3 min read

Mesut Ozil left Arsenal for Fenerbahce on a free transfer in January 2021 in acrimonious circumstances.

Ozil had been frozen out of Mikel Arteta’s squad amid a fallout with the manager and had been embroiled in a petty and very public relations war with the club.

One of the subjects that had frustrated both parties was the Ozil was unmoving in terms of reducing his wages because of the Covid-19 pandemic, which stopped play for several months in 2020 and continues to see crowds limited in some parts of the world.

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While some players saw their incomes reduced by 12.5%, Ozil stoically refused. Erkut Sogut, the player’s agent, has now revealed why that was the case.

“With the salary cut, he asked me: ‘Where is the money going?’” Sogut explained in an interview with Arsenal Fan TV.

“Mesut wanted assurances from the club that they wouldn’t fire anyone. That management would have a salary cut too.

“If that assurance was given and signed, he would have taken more of a cut. Thirty per cent. He wanted to know where the money was going.

“If it was to buy another player, he didn’t want to do it. If it was to secure the workplace, he wanted to do it.”

Ozil and Gunnersaurus

Ozil had shown at the time that he was frustrated with the attitude of the club towards its poorer paid staff and notably angry that Jerry Quy, the man who was mascot Gunnersaurus was sacked amid the cutbacks implemented by the club.

“I was so sad that Jerry Quy, aka our famous and loyal mascot Gunnersaurus and integral part of our club, was being made redundant after 27 years,” said the playmaker in a post on Twitter.

“As such, I’m offering to reimburse Arsenal with the full salary of our big green guy as long as I will be an Arsenal player so Jerry can continue his job that he loves so much.”

In the meantime, Arsenal notably signed Thomas Partey from Atletico Madrid on the final day of the summer transfer window for €50 million.

Ozil remains with Fenerbahce but has been frozen out of the starting XI amid an apparent fallout with his coach.