Mesut Ozil should join PSG, AC Milan then Bayern Munich! Arsenal star’s first club have his career all mapped out

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James Benge14 July 2016

Mesut Ozil’s first club have his career trajectory all mapped out… and it spells bad news for Arsenal fans. Rot-Weiss Essen’s chairman Michael Welling wants the German playmaker to join Paris St Germain, AC Milan, Bayern Munich and the Chinese Super League so his side can cash in on the solidarity payments they are due whenever Ozil switches clubs.

As reported by Standard Sport yesterday Essen are borrowing against the money they earn on each trade, which constitutes around one per cent of each transaction. It is a crucial sum for the Westphalians, who were once competing for German titles and the European Cup but now find themselves battling in the amateur four-tier.

In a bid to fund their youth academy the club are offering investors the promise of their money plus interest if and when Ozil leaves Arsenal, though the club’s record signing is yet to show any interest in leaving the Premier League. And Welling joked that he has big plans in the offing for the 27-year-old.

“We say that for the personal development of Mesut it’s very important that he lives a year or two in Paris,” he told Standard Sport. “He needs to see the art, to experience the French lifestyle and bring his World Cup experience to PSG.

“Mesut has to be in Paris for at least a year. Of course he’ll have to go on to Italy, AC Milan would be great. I’m pretty sure Bayern Munich would be a very good target for Mesut after Serie A.

“He’s said he wants to play in Istanbul and then, as you know, America is the place to develop your brand, and Mesut is a brand. After that, well China is paying a lot for players, isn’t it?

“It’s a simple career plan for Mesut, every year a big transfer to a European club. If he does that he can be an honorary member of our club.”

Welling may be in a light-hearted mood, but the value of one of Essen’s greatest products could have a major impact on the club.

Though Essen continue to draw crowds of several thousand in a league largely populated by the reserve sides of giants such as Borussia Dortmund and Schalke and amateur teams their budget offers little room to focus on producing the next generation of Ozils.

Arsenal's most expensive transfers

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At least not without the man himself making a move, or the club convincing investors to put their money on Ozil being traded in the future. Their campaign on crowd funding website Kickrs is working so far, with over £18,000 raised from 90 investors. If Ozil doesn't move the investors will not receive a return.

“We have about €6million per year at the moment in our fourth division team, when Mesut moved from Real Madrid to Arsenal it went up by about a tenth,” Welling added.

“We haven’t spent it all yet! But we’ve been using that to invest in our youth academy over the last two or three years, that only has an annual budget of €400,000, so it’s a huge chunk of that.

“He was educated in our youth academy for five years; everybody knows Mesut learned all his basics at our club. The career development of Mesut is of enormous pride to us, a lot of our players dream of being a Bundesliga player and world-class.

“Mesut inspires them but they also see he combined talent with hard work. It’s something that’s within our culture here. He’s an idol and a role model for our players.”

Arsenal fans may not take kindly to Welling’s (light-hearted) protestations that Ozil end his three years at the Emirates. He offers them his sympathy, but he’s also convinced that the Gunners can achieve glory with their playmaker in the side next year.

“Arsenal got over Thierry Henry, they’ll get over Mesut. I can understand that they’re addicted to Mesut; he’s committed himself to the club. Being a football fan first I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for Arsenal.

“Even though the Manchester clubs have new coaches and Jurgen Klopp is coaching Liverpool hopefully Arsenal will be English champions next year.

“Then Mesut can move on to PSG!”

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