‘It’s Wrong To Place It On Him’ – Germany’s Julian Brandt Breaks Ranks To Stick Up For Ozil

Julian Brandt publicly defends Mesut Ozil after his international retirement…

Germany winger Julian Brandt has become the first player from their World Cup squad to publicly defend Mesut Ozil since the Arsenal man retired from international football.

Ozil released a statement last month announcing his retirement from international football and cited racism as the main reason behind the decision.

The 29-year-old was largely blamed for Germany’s exit at the group stages of the World Cup, despite only starting two of the three games and, well, being one man.

Ozil feels there’s been an agenda built against him due to his Turkish heritage, which was fuelled by his picture with President Erdogan on the eve of the tournament.

However, for Brandt, laying the blame at one individual’s door is illogical.

“In my opinion, Mesut Ozil was not the reason for our World Cup exit,” Brandt said via Bayer Leverkusen’s Twitter account.

“Mesut probably was not at his best and made a few mistakes, but you could say that about any of us. It’s wrong to place all of the pressure on him alone.”

Brandt club allegiance has probably given him the freedom to make a statement given he silence emanating from the Bayern Munich squad.

The German giant’s links tot he DFB are extensive and it seems both entities have each other’s backs.

Given how deep this issue goes, it would be interesting to see if Brandt is now isolated from the Germany squad after this public backing of Mesut Ozil.