After calling time on his playing career with a final turn at Basaksehir, Ozil has continued to call Istanbul home. As per Bild, the elite location allows the former midfielder to be neighbours with the best man at his 2019 wedding, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Grey Wolves, since their inception, had been linked to numerous violent acts, including an attempted assassination on Pope John Paul II back in 1981, and some of their members have even been accused of murder. Among the nations that have banned the Grey Wolves' activity are France and Austria, the former doing so after a monument to the Armenian genocide near Lyon was defaced with pro-Turkish slogans in 2020. Asked by the Telegraph in 2025 if the tattoo on his chest was a reference to the Grey Wolves, Ozil's representatives did not respond.

Source: Daily Mail March 30, 2026 15:03 UTC