Erdogan meeting likely to cost Gundogan place in starting eleven
By James Fudge
Manchester City’s İlkay Gündoğan has not had the ideal preparation for Germany’s World Cup title defence in Russia.
He has been targeted by some of his own fans, received abuse, had his car vandalised while playing and is now unlikely to feature in their opening fixture.
The low point was likely during the friendly win against Saudi Arabia as he was booed with every touch, leaving Gündoğan an unpopular choice amongst the fans.
A number of sites quoting the German sports tabloid, Bild, have predicted their line-ups for the fixture with Joachim Löw opting for Toni Kroos and Sami Khedira playing behind the forward attackers of Thomas Mueller, Julian Draxler and Marco Reus.
The midfielder has been the subject of abuse from his own fans after a meeting with Turkish President Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in London, gifting him a signed autographed jersey and posing for photos with Mesut Özil.
The apparent publicity move failed to do Gundogan any favours as the city star of Turkish descent signed his shirt with ‘My President’.
As a result, criticism came from German Football Federation (DFB) President Reinhard Grindel and a number of former internationals following the release of the photos. German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed her views with the support of the two German internationals included in the squad.
"“If you bet on certain values, as the DFB (German FA) repeatedly conveys, then the decision can only be made by throwing the two players out. Ozil and Gundogan have now been lucky that the DFB acted in this case in an inconsistent way, and not quickly.” – former German and Bayern Munich captain, Stefan Effenberg."
The two nations have experienced increased political tensions as of late after Merkel has opposed Turkey’s full membership within the European Union, with doubts regarding Turkey’s supposed human rights violations and Erdogan’s purge of opposition parties following the failed coup in July 2016.
Germany has a large Turkish demographic as a number of nationals have escaped Erdoğan’s perceived ‘dictatorship’ rule.
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Many people believe the former Borrusia Dortmund star would have been preferred in the place of Khedira due to his superior technical ability, however, the manager is likely to have left the two Germans out of the starting eleven due to the meeting.
Gündoğan will want to impress during this year’s tournament after missing on the triumphant 2014 World Cup squad through an injury he sustained during international qualification. He also missed the Euro 2016 in France through a knee ligament injury.
I’m sure all we will be forgotten if the Manchester City midfielder scores the winning goal in the final to allow Die Mannschaft to defend their golden trophy.