Granit Xhaka
Granit Xhaka
A midfielder who has shared a pitch with a World Cup winner and a Bundesliga creator still gets asked for one name. The answer is usually the one who made the game look slow.
Releasing a playmaker and keeping the holder is a choice clubs live with. Years later the holder is the one doing the interview.
Sunderland’s social channels are an odd place for an Emirates argument. They are also where this one started.
Granit Xhaka has named Mesut Özil as the best player he has ever played with, in a clip posted on Sunderland’s TikTok. No longer quote has been published beyond the name.
They played 112 games together for Arsenal. The record was 61 wins, 24 draws and 27 defeats. They did not lose any of the first 16. The partnership frayed after Arsène Wenger left, as the side struggled and Özil’s role shrank.
He was released in 2021. Xhaka stayed until 2023, won the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen, and is now back in the Premier League with Sunderland, who have qualified for Europe.
Arsenal - Mesut Ozil
Arsenal - Mesut Ozil
Özil won the 2014 World Cup. On his best days at Arsenal he was the passer the team was built around. The case that he would have broken the Premier League assist record if the finishing had matched the chances is a fan argument, not a statistic. Xhaka has also played with Florian Wirtz and, for Switzerland, with Xherdan Shaqiri. He still picked the German.
The release is the part that stings in the headline. Özil’s last two seasons were a contract standoff, a dropped captaincy and a squad that had moved on. Letting him go cleared a wage. It did not produce a replacement of the same type until Martin Ødegaard settled. Xhaka’s own exit was messier in the stands and cleaner on the pitch. He left as a Leverkusen champion in waiting.
Sunderland asked a simple question. The answer puts a released No. 10 above everyone Xhaka has lined up with since, including the player who just won a league with him in Germany. Arsenal do not have to agree. They do have to live with the fact the man who played alongside both still says Özil was the best.