El Mundo Deportivo reports that midfielder Mesut Ozil has grown increasingly unhappy at Real Madrid and is seeking a way out of the Santiago Bernabéu at the end of the season.
According to the newspaper, Inter Milan have already been in contact and have asked to be kept informed of any developments concerning the German international, although Madrid President, Florentino Pérez, will attempt to get the player to reconsider his position.
It goes on to say that sources in Madrid believe Ozil is too inconsistent and only plays his best football when he is with the German national team, for whom he scored a superb goal against Belgium in a 3-1 win on Tuesday night following a pass from Real Madrid teammate Sami Khedira.
Ozil’s problems in Madrid appear to stem from the fact that Kaká has started to rediscover the form that prompted Real to pay €68.5m for his signature from AC Milan in July, 2009, believing that the Brazilian superstar holds an advantage over him in that he would be chosen ahead of him, if only for economic and image rights reasons. Consequently, the 22-year-old now feels he could be spending more and more time on the bench and that he is no longer a permanent fixture in José Mourinho’s starting line-up.
The German was a key part of Mourinho’s plans last season, scoring six goals in 36 league appearances, but this term he has so far failed to complete a full 90 minutes in any game – six in La Liga and two in the Champions League; he was also on the bench for the games with Levante and Rayo Vallecano.
Although he has not lived up to expectations at the start of this season, Ozil is still one of the most sought-after members of Mourinho’s squad and Los Blancos would ask for between €30m and €35m if he does indeed get his wish of a move, representing a healthy profit on the €15m he cost when signed from Werder Bremen in August last year.
Real have also been unhappy with statements attributed to the player’s father in which he said: “My son runs between 12 and 14 kilometres every game, collects the ball deep and then distributes it forward, which requires much expenditure of energy. Look at how Barca play. There they have 10 players working for Messi. At Real Madrid, Mesut wears the same No 10 [shirt] but the rest don’t work for him.”
Ozil himself also confessed to German publication Bild in October, 2009 that “my dream is to play for Barcelona,” a declaration which was unsurprisingly not well received by Real Madrid supporters.
