Half a year after he quit the German national football team, Mesut Ozil still divides the land of his birth

Mesut Özil no longer plays for the German national football team, and doesn’t even live in Germany, but he still divides public opinion in the country.

Reports that he has invited Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to be guest of honour at his wedding later this year have reignited the explosive row that turned many German fans against him and led to his early retirement from international football.

When Özil and his fiancee, Amine Gulse, were photographed paying court to Mr Erdoğan in Istanbul last week, it was bound to enrage his German critics.

It was reminiscent of his fateful decision to pose for an earlier photograph with the Turkish leader that ended his international career and opened…

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