{"id":267709,"date":"2024-12-29T07:14:28","date_gmt":"2024-12-29T07:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/29\/he-is-first-class-very-creative\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:09:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:09:54","slug":"he-is-first-class-very-creative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/29\/he-is-first-class-very-creative\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHe is first class, very creative\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-content\" data-postid=\"4699492\" data-slug-id=\"2290401\">\n<div class=\"vidazoo-player-container\">\n<span class=\"vidazoo-close-btn  hidden \"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/cmc-predictor\/v2\/cross-icon.png?w=40\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" alt=\"close\"\/><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Barcelona icon Lionel Messi had once hailed former Real Madrid rival Mezut Ozil as the best player of his national team, Germany. Ozil played for<em> Los Blancos <\/em>between 2010 and 2013.<\/p>\n<p>Lionel Messi and Mesut Ozil have faced each other in 22 games across club and country. The Argentine legend won 10 games and lost and drew six games each against Ozil.<\/p>\n<p>The duo played against each other in 16 El Clasicos when Ozil was at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/team\/real-madrid-cf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Real Madrid<\/a> and Messi at Barcelona. The retired midfielder was a part of Germany&#8217;s squad when they notably beat Messi&#8217;s Argentina 1-0 in extra-time in the final of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Ozil has 23 goals in 92 caps for Germany.<\/p>\n<p><template id=\"also-read-articles-template\"><\/p>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<p>In a 2013 interview with the Dutch newspaper <em>De Telegraaf<\/em>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/player\/lionel-messi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Lionel Messi<\/a> had heaped praise on Mesut Ozil. The two were playing for rival teams Barcelona and Real Madrid at that time.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Ozil is for me Germany&#8217;s best player, he is first class, very creative,&#8221; the Argentine said via Bleacher Report.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mesut Ozil retired from professional football in March 2023. He is often considered among the best players of both Real Madrid (2010-2013) and Arsenal (2013\u20132021). He was also significant to Germany&#8217;s triumph in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, scoring and assisting once in the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>His other significant titles include one LaLiga, one Copa del Rey, and one Supercopa de Espana with<em> Los Blancos<\/em> and four FA Cup titles with Arsenal.<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<h2>When former Real Madrid star Mesut Ozil chose between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"image\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sk-app-thumbnail\" alt=\"L to R: Messi and Ozil - Source: Getty\" src=\"https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/editor\/2024\/12\/bf27c-17349578740128-1920.jpg\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"high\" class=\"lazy-img\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" data-img=\"https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/editor\/2024\/12\/bf27c-17349578740128-1920.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/editor\/2024\/12\/bf27c-17349578740128-1920.jpg?w=190 190w, https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/editor\/2024\/12\/bf27c-17349578740128-1920.jpg?w=720 720w, https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/editor\/2024\/12\/bf27c-17349578740128-1920.jpg?w=640 640w, https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/editor\/2024\/12\/bf27c-17349578740128-1920.jpg?w=1045 1045w, https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/editor\/2024\/12\/bf27c-17349578740128-1920.jpg?w=1200 1200w, https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/editor\/2024\/12\/bf27c-17349578740128-1920.jpg?w=1460 1460w, https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/editor\/2024\/12\/bf27c-17349578740128-1920.jpg?w=1600 1600w, https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/editor\/2024\/12\/bf27c-17349578740128-1920.jpg 1920w\" alt=\"L to R: Messi and Ozil - Source: Getty\" data-img-low=\"https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/editor\/2024\/12\/bf27c-17349578740128-1920.jpg?w=640\" bad-src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,&lt;svg%20xmlns=%22http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg%22%20viewBox=%220%200%201920%201280%22&gt;&lt;\/svg&gt;\"\/><figcaption>L to R: Messi and Ozil &#8211; Source: Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a January 2021 Q&amp;A session on X (formerly Twitter), a user asked Mesut Ozil the age-old question of choosing between Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. While Ozil has never played alongside Messi, he shared the pitch with Ronaldo for <em>Los Blancos<\/em> in 149 games, recording 39 joint-goal participations. He wrote (via Mirror):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Messi has proven himself to be one of the best ever in Spain, but Ronaldo was always the best in every country he\u2019s played in! \ud83d\ude09.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/player\/cristiano-ronaldo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-is-sponsored=\"false\">Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a> and Lionel Messi have cemented their position among the greatest to ever grace the beautiful sport. The duo&#8217;s rivalry reached its peak from 2009 to 2018 when they played for rival clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively.<\/p>\n<p>The two have won 13 Ballons d&#8217;Or together, with Messi boasting a record eight and Ronaldo five.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-post-rating-widget\">\n<p><template id=\"post-rating-feedback-modal-template\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-feedback-box\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-content\">\n<div class=\"post-rating-feedback-data\">\n<p>Why did you not like this content?<\/p>\n<p><textarea id=\"dislike-feedback-text\" rows=\"4\" placeholder=\"Please type your feedback...\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<button class=\"close\">Cancel<\/button><br \/>\n<button class=\"submit\">Submit<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-widget-parent hidden\">\n<div class=\"rating-parent-container\">\n<div class=\"rating-content-holder\">\n<p>Was this article helpful?<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-rating-action-container\">\n<div class=\"like-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-like-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"like\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"post-like-image post-rating-image\" src=\"https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" alt=\"like selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"dislike-container\">\n<button class=\"post-rating-dislike-button post-rating-button\" data-action=\"dislike\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"post-dis-like-image post-rating-image\" src=\"https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/like-articles\/upvote-icon-grey.svg\" height=\"20\" width=\"20\" alt=\"avatar selected\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\nThank You for feedback\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"tag-cloud\">\n<div class=\"tags-text\">\n<div class=\"scrollable-content-holder  article-padding\">\n<p class=\"article-p  \">Quick Links<\/p>\n<p><button id=\"pnAdvancerLeft\" class=\"pn-Advancer pn-Advancer_Left \" type=\"button\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"background: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/skm\/assets\/article\/article-scroll-left.svg\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button><\/p>\n<nav id=\"pnProductNav\" class=\"pn-ProductNav\">\n<\/nav>\n<p><button id=\"pnAdvancerRight\" class=\"pn-Advancer pn-Advancer_Right \" type=\"button\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"background: none;\" src=\"https:\/\/statico.sportskeeda.com\/skm\/assets\/article\/article-scroll-right.svg\"\/><br \/>\n<\/button>\n<\/div>\n<p>More from Sportskeeda<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n<span class=\"publisher-name\">Edited by Ritwik Kumar<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script> \nvar fbPixelFired = false;\nvar pixelID = \"952063904834769\";\ndocument.addEventListener(\"scroll\", loadFBPixel, { once: true, passive: true });\ndocument.addEventListener(\"mousemove\", loadFBPixel, { once: true, passive: true });\nfunction loadFBPixel() {\nif(fbPixelFired) {\nreturn;\n}\nfbPixelFired = true;\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? \nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, \ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\nfbq('init', pixelID); \nfbq('track', \"PageView\");\nfbq('track', 'ViewContent');\ndocument.removeEventListener(\"scroll\", loadFBPixel);\ndocument.removeEventListener(\"mousemove\", loadFBPixel);\n}\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportskeeda.com\/football\/he-first-class-creative-when-lionel-messi-hailed-real-madrid-rival-best-player-claim\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Barcelona icon Lionel Messi had once hailed former Real Madrid rival Mezut Ozil as the best player of his national team, Germany. Ozil played<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":267710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267709"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}