MALAIKA MAHLATSI | The Musk and Özil controversies expose the ugly politics of selective national identity in western countries
US president's comments reflect shifting views based on political alignment: American when 'good, African when 'bad'
For many years, Mesut Özil was regarded as one of the best players in the German national football team. Between 2011 and 2016, he was voted German national team player of the year a total of five times. He was loved deeply by Germans, who saw him as one of their own.
And Özil was one of their own. After all, he was born and raised in the city of Gelsenkirchen, in the west German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. But he was not just a German – a fact that he would repeat many times, stating in 2018, “I have two hearts, one German and one Turkish” – he was also proudly of Turkish descent...
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