It was probably not a surprise to the Arsenal midfield star when he was not voted as the best player of the Germany national team for the calendar year 2014, despite the fact that Mesut Ozil had won the award for the three previous years and was looking untouchable.
2014 was not a great year for Ozil, especially at club level, and even though he helped Germany to win the World Cup in Brazil he was not as influential as he normally is and often had to fill one of the wide roles. For Arsenal his form dipped and he struggled to cope with the physical nature of the game in the English Premier League.
So our midfield magician must be delighted to be back on top in the eyes of the German football fans, after Sky Sports reported that the 27-year old had won the vote for the German Player of 2015. He did not just edge it either but with 46 percent of the vote he was a clear winner over second placed Thomas Muller of Bayern Munich with 16 percent.
Ozil comes across as a modest fellow and the fact that his main thing is providing assists rather than scoring goals himself shows that he is a real team player, but he must also be happy to be appreciated after all the criticism and doubts.
Will this award inspire Ozil to even greater things for Arsenal?