Ozil ‘scared’ for wife and Kolasinac in car terror
Mesut Ozil has revealed for the first time the fear he felt for his wife and his team-mate Sead Kolasinac during an attempted carjacking this summer.
Ozil and Kolasinac were attacked in north London by two men on mopeds in July, with Kolasinac chasing them off, before the players fled to a nearby restaurant.
Both players were subsequently left out of Arsenal’s opening Premier League game of the season, away to Newcastle, following further security incidents. “Sead’s reaction was really brave because he attacked one of the attackers,” Ozil told The Athletic website. “The second one was in front of my car on his moped, so I couldn’t drive.
“We were newly wed and I was scared about my wife. I was scared about Sead. I wasn’t thinking about myself. I was worried they were going to open my wife’s door, so I reached across her to keep it closed.
“Nothing happened to us, that’s the most important thing. We were worried these guys had been targeting us, but the police said they found them and a few hours earlier, they tried to rob other people nearby in a similar way.”
The incident brought a troubling interruption to an otherwise encouraging pre-season for Ozil. He has since fallen out of Unai Emery’s first-team plans at Arsenal, making only two appearances this campaign. Ozil’s enormous contract, worth £350,000 a week, is a major cost for the club, but the German insisted he had no intention of leaving Arsenal before it expired.
“I have a contract until the summer of 2021 and I will be staying until then,” said Ozil, who added that he was doing extra training sessions to build his fitness. “When I signed the new deal, I thought about it very carefully and said it was one of the most important decisions of my footballing career.
“I didn’t want to stay for just one or two more years, I wanted to commit my future to Arsenal and the club wanted me to do the same.”
Emery insisted yesterday that Ozil had a future at the club, adding that his performances in training had improved in recent weeks.
“This year started difficult for him. He worked well in pre-season and he was playing in the games,” said Emery. “But then the problem he had along with Sead stopped him. After that he was sick for one week and then he lost his fitness.
“But in the past two to three weeks he’s improved in training. He has a quality we will need in the next matches. I am happy, now, with how he is improving. He is one player more in the squad.”