Germany national team head coach Joachim Low insists he has attempted to reach out to Ozil, but his calls have fallen on deaf ears.
Ozil subsequently opted to retire from international football following Germany’s disastrous group stage exit in Russia, claiming he had been subjected to racist abuse.
‘We underestimated the influence of these pictures with Erdogan. My only thought was to prepare well for the World Cup,’ said Low. ‘Mesut Ozil did not even call me. His agent called me instead. I’ve tried to reach Mesut several times but we did not talk until this day. ‘We are disappointed with Ozil’s decision to retire but we have to accept that. However, he was exaggerating a bit when it comes to racism. There was never a single attempt of racism or anything similar in our team.’