Unai Emery says Mesut Özil will have to “live with” the criticism he continues to receive in Germany following his decision to retire from international football.

Özil announced last month that he would never play for the national team again as long as what he believed to be racist practices continued at the German Football Association (DFB). Özil’s remarks were met by disparagement from the country’s footballing establishment, including Uli Hoeness, the president of Bayern Munich, who said this week that Özil was less a footballer than a “marketed product”.

Mesut Özil walks away from Germany team citing ‘racism and disrespect’ Read more

For Emery Özil is part of the “family”. He pledged to support the midfielder – one of Arsenal’s five captains for the season – as the storm around his retirement continues. The manager, however, also said that criticism is par for the course at a prestigious club and that Özil would have to deal with it.

“We are here to help him,” Emery said. “We are his family and [the club] is his home. In our careers, as coaches and players, we are going to receive criticism. When we do well they are also going to speak about us well. It’s a habit for us to have critics. But we are professional. We need to live with this. Here [at Arsenal] we need and we want to help him.”

After a dismal World Cup for Germany Özil announced his retirement in July. But in an explanatory statement posted on social media the player objected to the behaviour of the media, sponsorship partners and, most strongly, the DFB for the way he had been treated in the weeks leading up to the World Cup.

Özil, who is the descendent of Turkish immigrants, said he had been made a target after he was photographed alongside the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “In the eyes of [DFB president Reinhard] Grindel,” he wrote, “I am German when we win, but an immigrant when we lose. I will no longer stand for being a scapegoat for his incompetence and inability to do his job properly.”

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Grindel has said he and the DFB could have handled the controversy relating to the photograph better but “vehemently rejected” accusations of racism. “The values of the DFB are also my values,” he said. “Diversity, solidarity, anti-discrimination and integration are all values and convictions that are very close to my heart.”

With the debate over Özil’s decision still roiling in his home country, another German expat, Jürgen Klopp, has also came to the player’s defence. “This is a classic example of absolute misinformation and, of course, complete nonsense,” Liverpool’s manager told the German television channel Sport1.