There’s something strange about football clubs literally paying a player to go away, but the situation with Mesut Ozil does demonstrate why it’s worthwhile for all parties.
He still hasn’t officially completed his long-awaited move to Fenerbahce but it does seem certain, while Turkish outlet Sporx are even running trackers on private planes in the hope of finding out when he will land in the country.
They also looked at the financial details of the deal that will take Ozil to the Turkish giants, and it looks like he’ll still be a very wealthy man while Arsenal did make a saving by paying him off.
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It’s suggested that they still owed him around €8m in wages until the end of the season but they’ve paid him a lump sum of €5m to terminate his deal.
He clearly wasn’t going to play at Arsenal so that money was tied up in a player who would be sitting at home and it does mean they’ve saved around €3m by agreeing the pay-off.
The extensive negotiations with Arsenal over the termination payment made it sound like he wouldn’t be earning much at Fenerbahce at all, but they’ve managed to agree a pretty big contract with him thanks to some help form the sponsors.
He’ll be paid a €5m signing bonus over the length of the three and a half year deal, while his basic salary will also be around €4m a year with added bonuses for playing in matches and helping them to win the league or reach the Champions League again.
It’s also believed that Ozil is particularly popular in the Far East so they’re hoping to sell over one million shirts with his name on them by the end of the season, so it really does look like it’s been worth the effort to bring him in when it comes to the financial side of things.
Hopefully he’ll also have a brilliant time on the pitch and return to his best form, while his debut will absolutely be one of the more anticipated ones from this transfer window.