You cannot accuse the Arsenal and Germany international star Mesut Ozil of lacking in confidence and ambition, after the 26-year old attacking midfielder stated this week that he has set his personal goal as winning the Ballon D’Or before the end of his career.
At the moment that looks impossible unless your name is Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, but the Real Madrid and Portugal star is now 30-years old and has had his injury problems. Messi has had dips in form and injury problems himself so you never know.
Even considering the possibility that those two might leave the door open for someone else to win it in the next few years, it is clear that Ozil would need to be playing better than he is at the minute to stand a chance of lifting that giant golden football, but maybe he does not need to improve quite as much as his many critics would have you believe.
The German has really come good for the Gunners this season, realising that he needed to be stronger to shine in the Premier League and really getting his head down and putting in the effort, even if it does still look like he is out for a kickabout on the beach.
Now, though, Ozil needs to work on improving a couple of key elements of his game. The most important is his goals tally but also his calmness in front of goal. I have no problem with Ozil passing if it makes a goal more likely but it does seem that he sometimes rushes when the goal beckons.
Perhaps a few training sessions with the great Thierry Henry would do the trick because with a little tweak to his performances in front of goal, Ozil would be scoring plenty and assisting even more goals for Arsenal and Germany and then his ambition of winning the Ballon D’Or might not seem half as optimistic.
What do you think Gooners?