Florentino Perez has rarely got it wrong in the transfer market during his second tenure at Real Madrid, but one transfer left the squad gutted.
The legendary Los Blancos president has seen his second ‘Galacticos‘ period work out far better than the first, resulting in a whopping six Champions League titles.
One of those Galactico signings missed out on all six of those titles, and Sami Khedira has revealed why a 2013 transfer left the squad baffled.
Speaking to Marca about his time in Spain, the former Germany international was asked about the most special player in the team.
He replied: “Everyone understands Cristiano. To win games, Cristiano was the man, because he never failed. He was always there. We needed a goal, so we passed the ball to Cristiano.
“But the most special player for me was Mesut Özil. And I explain it with his departure.
“The day Mesut left, we were all saying to Florentino: ‘But why are you selling him?!’ But we all said it, right? Benzema, Cristiano, Ramos… Özil 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 have never seen a player with that class and that quality, really.”
Asked if Ozil ever could’ve won a Ballon d’Or, he added: “I don’t know, because there was Cristiano and Messi and also Xavi and Iniesta, who for me should have won a Ballon d’Or.
“But yes, Özil had that potential. And although he had a great career, it would have been different at Madrid.
“And he told me, that it was a serious mistake to leave Madrid, because he had everything here. The Bernabéu loved him, he played like an angel… Really, Mesut played like Zidane. My idol was Zizou and if you put both of them on YouTube and watch them… Mesut was like Zizou.”
Leave a Reply