Former Arsenal and Real Madrid midfielder Mesut Ozil, a German footballer of Turkish decent, has confirmed he will be linking up with the Football Association and Bradford City for the launch of Football for Peace Mesut Ozil Centre.
The groundbreaking announcement will see Ozil work alongside Kash Siddiqui, a former Oxford United and Pakistan football player. Ozil is a long-term supporter of Football for Peace, a global organisation backed by the United Nations and co-founded internationally by British Asian and former Pakistan international footballer Siddiqi.
The Mesut Ozil development centre aims to provide pathways into football and education and will be hosted at the University of Bradford, with elite sessions taking place at Bradford City’s training ground.
In the UK, the population of British Asian’s is some 7% of the population, but barely 1% (0.25%) of the Asian community plays the sport professionally. Hamza Chaudhry of Leicester City and Manchester United’s Zidane Iqbal are some of the very few high profiled British Asian’s in the game today.
With this ground breaking initiative backed by World Cup winner Ozil, just maybe we can Asian sports fans can dream of the new Haaland being Asian. We can but dream right?
The Sports Buff ⚽️ ⚾️ 🏈 
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