Fez -Germany's star Mesut Özil has denied earlier reports that he gave his World Cup bonus money to the children of Gaza. Instead he said he donated the money to fund sick children in Brazil to undergo surgery.
Fez –Germany’s star Mesut Özil has denied earlier reports that he gave his World Cup bonus money to the children of Gaza. Instead he said he donated the money to fund sick children in Brazil to undergo surgery.
After it was widely rumored by several Arabic and English speaking media outlets that Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil had donated his World Cup money to Gaza, Mesut Ozil’s spokesman has issued a public denial of the story.
On Wednesday evening, Mesut Özil’s spokesman clarified once and for all that the Arsenal star did not give his World Cup bonus money to Gaza.
Instead, he revealed that Özil had made donations to unspecified projects in Brazil.
Rob Harris, a United Kingdom Associated Press sports writer, has since tweeted that Özil’s spokesman, Roland Eitel, told AP that the footballer is donating his earnings to “projects in Brazil” instead of to Gaza.
Story spreading on Ozil WC winnings not true. @MesutOzil1088‘s spokesman told @AP that Ozil’s donating money to projects in Brazil NOT Gaza
— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) July 16, 2014
“The claim that Mesut donated money to Gaza is not true. Maybe in the future, who knows? He donated money to causes in Brazil and he is now on holiday,”Roland Eitel has told the AP.
The day after arriving back in Berlin, Özil –who is of Turkish decent and a practicing Muslim –announced on his FaceBook page, his intentions to sponsor the surgeries of 11 Brazilian children to show his thanks for the host nation’s hospitality throughout the tournament. He wrote:
dear fans,
prior to the #WorldCup I supported the surgery of eleven sick children. since the victory of the #WorldCup is not only due to eleven players but to our whole team, I will now raise the number to 23. This is my personal thank-you for the hospitality of the people of Brazil.
