Mesut Özil
The first person of Turkish descent to play for the Germany national football team was Mehmet Scholl in 1993, followed by Mustafa Doğan in 1999 and Malik Fathi in 2006. Since the twenty-first century there has been an increase in German-born individuals of Turkish origin opting to play for Germany, including Serdar Tasci and Suat Serdar, Kerem Demirbay, Emre Can, İlkay Gündoğan, Mesut Özil. Of those, Mesut Özil played the most matched for Germany (92 apps). His photo with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (together with Ilkay Gündogan and Cenk Tosun) just before the World Cup 2018 and his subsequent retirement after World Cup led to a controversy and political and