Mesut Özil and the controversy behind his far-right tattoo

Mesut Özil is just the latest in a considerably long list. The former Real Madrid footballer has unleashed a barrage of criticism after taking a photograph in which a tattoo with far-right symbols could be seen. As various media have pointed out, the small wolf that appears on his chest is one of the symbols of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), a Turkish formation that has had a strong influence on the government of that country, despite the fact that, among other things, it defends the outlawing of the main Kurdish party.

Özil, a German of Turkish descent, has always been especially close to Erdogan. To such an extent that he even came to his wedding as a witness. The former player, who announced his withdrawal from the pitch last March due to frequent injuries, is not the only footballer who has openly shown his sympathies for the extreme right.

One of the clearest cases, perhaps, would be that of the Italian Paolo di Canio, who was caught on multiple occasions making the fascist salute from the pitch and whose collaboration with Sky Sports Italia was severed after a tattoo was revealed on his right arm in which the word Dux could be read, referring to the nickname 'Il Duce' with which they used to refer to Benito Mussolini.

Gianluigi Buffon, for his part, was also immersed in a serious controversy after deciding to wear the number 88 shirt in his first spell as a Parma footballer.. A number that neo-Nazis use extensively for its equivalence with the proclamation 'Heil, Hitler', since the 'H' is the eighth letter of the alphabet. The goalkeeper, at that time, completely disassociated himself from any type of political ideology and assured that he had chosen that figure because, from his point of view, they were “two pairs of balls”.. And he even went so far as to ensure that he would change it for a 77 that could also have brought him many problems. In this case, due to machismo, since he assured that the number would be a tribute “to the legs of women”. Just a few days ago, moreover, the Italian Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, announced the intention to prohibit assigning the number 88 to soccer players as one of the measures to fight anti-Semitism.

At the Spanish level, finally, the footballer who would have most profusely shown his sympathies for the ideals close to the extreme right would be a Salva Ballesta who, despite having declared himself apolitical, wore the motto 'Arriba España' on one of his boots and has never hidden his admiration as an aviator for the German Hans-Ulrich Rüdel, a prominent Stuka bomber pilot in World War II who, among other actions, had a notable participation in the Battle of Stalingrad.. The former striker, moreover, did not bite his tongue when it came to expressing his opinion about the former Barça player Oleguer Presas, always close to the pro-independence postulates and from the extreme left, whom he described with a very forceful phrase through the radio waves: “I have more respect for a dog poop”.