Former Real Madrid midfielder Sami Khedira has revealed how a former team-mate was more ‘special’ than Cristiano Ronaldo – but the player made a “mistake” by leaving the club.
Khedira, 37, has had a successful career at Los Blancos, winning La Liga, the Copa del Rey (x2), the Club World Cup, the Champions League and the Supercopa de Espana during his five-year stay in the Spanish capital.
To add to his success on the domestic front, he was part of the Germany team that won the 2014 World Cup in Brazil – although he was subbed out in the warm-up before the final and was replaced by Christoph Kramer on the team sheet. Was lying. ,
During his playing days, the former midfielder shared the pitch with some great players, winning league titles at Juventus, Stuttgart and Madrid.
The midfielder was teammates with Ronaldo when the Portuguese was arguably at his peak between 2011 and 2015 and later shared the pitch with him again after the five-time Ballon d’Or winner moved to Juve in 2019.
But it was his German compatriot Mesut Ozil whom Khedira believed “has everything”.
“Everyone understands Cristiano [Ronaldo]Khedira told Mark,
Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil were Real Madrid and Germany teammates (Credit: Getty)
“To win the game, Cristiano was the man because he never failed. He was always there. We needed a goal, so the ball went to Cristiano.
“But the most special player for me was Mesut Ozil. And I explain this by his departure.
“The day Mesut left, we were all saying to Florentino [Perez]: “But why are you selling it?” But we all said it, right? [Karim] benzema, cristiano, [Sergio] Ramos… Ozil was an absolute genius; He was a real magician.
“I played behind him, and you gave him a bad pass, and he controlled the ball with ease… I haven’t really seen a player at that level and with that quality.”
“I don’t know, because there was Cristiano [Ronaldo] And [Lionel] Messi and Xavi and more [Andres] Iniesta, who should have won the Ballon d’Or for me,” he said.
“But yes, Ozil had that ability.
“And although he had a very good career, it would have been different in Madrid. And he told me, that leaving Madrid was a serious mistake, because he had everything here.
“The [Sanitago] The Bernabéu loved him; He played like an angel… Seriously, Mesut [Ozil] like played [Zinedine] Zidane.
“My idol was Zizzou, and if you put both of them on YouTube and watch them… Mesut was like Zizzou.”
Ozil left Madrid in 2013, signing for Arsenal, where he remained for eight years before a brief stint in Türkiye with Fenerbahce and Istanbul Basaksehir.