The Off-pitch Wizardry: Özil in Facebook
Mesut Özil, a football player who owns over 3 million followers in Facebook. In his first post in 2018, he reviewed the major events of last year, and concluded himself as different roles: Arsenal midfielder, German national player, and owner of his personal brand. In the following passage, I will focus on his posts of 2018 (up to date) and examine how he balances the multiple roles on the internet.
As a professional footballer, Özil’s homepage is preoccupied with his job on the green field: eight out of fourteen posts are about his playing for Arsenal. As the most talented wizard in north London, Özil knows the skills of winning applause. In a closer review, he always posts shortly after the match ends, adding hashtags of the two teams in the match (e.g. #AFCvCFC) and the commonly used slogans from supporters (as his favorite: #YaGunnersYa and #COYG). Average likes of his posts are over 80,000, the latest one of welcoming the winter signings gained over 100000 likes, for the transfer window is always like an earthquake for clubs. The most liked content of his posts in 2018 is him signing the new contract of three more years in Arsenal, over 220,000 likes shows the fans’ overwhelming excitement.
When off pitch, Özil enjoys posting his life in London. The content of this kind of daily life posts is mostly his selfie, his picture with his beloved dog, and the tourist life in London. An interesting fact is that two of his personal pictures have more than 100000 likes from the followers, which more than the average likes of the match day posts. This reveals the fact that fans are more courious about the private life of their star. Özil well knows the benefit of fandom, so he created his personal brand M1Ö — a combination of his name initials and favorite number. As a part of online marketing, he often wears the hat with his personal logo on it as a means of promotion. In the previously mentioned post of signing a new contract he also wears the hat, he could not miss the great chance to show the logo to the exciting fans around the world.
Lastly, I would like to put the observation on his second post after the contract signing announcement. He expressed his thankfulness to his lawyer and his brother, using hashtags of “thank you” in German and Turkish. As an heir of the Turkish immigrant grows up in Germany, this gesture shows his respect to his home country. Although English has the perk of spreading, he did not forget to reconstruct his personal identity.
All it is being said, modern football is no longer only about 11 against 11 on the pitch, but the fans in the stadium, in bars, at home and on the internet. To fulfill their fantasies, Özil has the way.
