Three months after the terrifying incident, Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil has opened up about the evening that he, alongside his wife and teammate Sead Kolasinac, was targeted by knife-wielding carjackers on the streets of London.
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Ozil says that above all else he was scared for the safety of his wife, Amine, and recognizes how brave and heroic the actions of Kolasinac were that day. If not for Kolasinac’s instant reaction to jump out of the car and go after the attackers, Ozil fears they would have entered the car through the passenger door, where his wife was sitting — quotes from the Athletic (subscription required):“Sead’s reaction was really, really brave because he attacked one of the attackers. The second one was in front of my car on his moped so I couldn’t drive.
“We were newly wed and I was scared about my wife. I was scared about Sead. I wasn’t thinking about myself. I was worried they were going to open my wife’s door and they tried, so I reached across her to keep it closed.
“Nothing happened to us, that’s the most important thing. We were worried these guys had been targeting us, but the police said they found them and, a few hours earlier, they tried to robbed other people nearby in a similar way.”Since the incident, Kolasinac has returned as a first-team regular (when healthy), while Ozil has remained just on the outside of Unai Emery’s squad. The 31-year-old German international has made just one Premier League appearance this season, now more than a month ago, on Sept. 15. Though there has been much speculation over his future, Ozil insists he only sees himself remaining an Arsenal player for the foreseeable future.
“I have a contract until the summer of 2021 and I will be staying until then. When I signed the new deal, I thought about it very carefully and said it was one of the most important decisions of my footballing career.
“I didn’t want to stay for just one or two more years, I wanted to commit my future to Arsenal and the club wanted me to do the same. You can go through difficult times, like this, but that is no reason to run away.”Follow @AndyEdMLS
