Former Manchester City midfielder, Yaya Toure has disapproved of Mesut Ozil recent criticism of the Chinese government.
The former Germany international openly criticized the Chinese government for their reported treatment of the Muslim minority in the country.
Ozil’s criticism came at a cost as the Chinese TV stations refused to air Arsenal’s game against Manchester City to show their disdain for his comments and he was branded “blind” and “misled”.
Toure who has just finished a brief spell in China has spoken on the issue and insisted that Ozil was in the wrong and he should have just focused on playing his football.
Toure added that footballers have to avoid meddling in political issues. His stand was the same as Arsenal who released a statement clarifying that they would always remain neutral to political issues.
“Footballers have to stay with football and politicians to politics because you cannot be involved with this kind of things because it’s going to attract a lot of problems and a lot of things,” Toure said in an interview with The Associated Press per FoxSports. “As a Muslim it is complicated and it is his choice. He’s been doing his comments but I think he was wrong to say that.”
This is not the first time Ozil has been in the limelight because of a political issue, he was also in the news after he posed for pictures with Turkey’s president a while back.