Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil has been named Germany’s Player of the Year for 2015, according to the DFB’s official website. This is the fourth time Ozil has won the award after a hat-trick of titles between 2011 and 2013.
Toni Kroos had won it in 2014 – the year Germany won the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Although Ozil played a crucial role in bringing the trophy home after 24 years, the Real Madrid bound Kroos took the prize.
Ozil had a sensational 2015, especially in the second half of the year. After helping the Gunners retain the FA Cup title, Ozil started the 2015/16 season with a bang, accumulating as many as 16 assists by the end of December. He has also scored five goals – with two coming in the Champions League.
The Premier League record for most assists in a single season is 20 by club legend Thierry Henry – and Ozil still has another 17 games to get at least five and break the record. He has already been named Player of the Month at the club three times in a row.
For Germany, Ozil played in eight out of nine matches last year. He was instrumental in Die Mannschaft’s progress in the qualifiers as they topped the group to qualify for Euro 2016. Incredibly, he played 755 minutes and only missed one game – a friendly against France.
In all, according to DFB, he covered a distance of 93 kilometres and completed 612 passes for his national team, averaging almost 80 passes a game.
There were 13 players nominated and, according to the votes counted, Ozil won by a landslide. In all, he got over 51,000 votes to beat the likes of Bayern Munich forward Thomas Muller and defender Jonas Hector.
The rest of the players who got less than 10% of the votes were – Toni Kroos (Real Madrid), Ilkay Gundogan (Borussia Dortmund), Andre Schurrle (VfL Wolfsburg), Mario Gotze (Bayern Munich), Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich/Manchester United), Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Lukas Podolski (Arsenal/Inter/Galatasaray) and Karim Bellarabi (Bayer Leverkusen).
| # | PLAYER | CLUB | VOTE % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mesut Ozil | Arsenal | 45.9% |
| 2 | Thomas Muller | Bayern Munich | 15.9% |
| 3 | Jonas Hector | FC Koln | 13.6% |
Previous winners of Germany’s Player of the Year award
| YEAR | PLAYER | CLUB |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Bastian Schweinsteiger | Bayern Munich |
| 2011 | Mesut Ozil | Real Madrid |
| 2012 | Mesut Ozil | Real Madrid |
| 2013 | Mesut Ozil | Real Madrid/Arsenal |
| 2014 | Toni Kroos | Bayern Munich/Real Madrid |
| 2015 | Mesut Ozil | Arsenal |
