Mesut Ozil has revealed that last summer he was offered a ‘fairy tale’ amount of money to switch to the Chinese Super League.

  • Ozil has provided the Daily Mail with snippets from his new autobiography, Gunning for Greatness: My Life, out on 20 April
  • Reveals Chinese club offered around £380kpw last summer – after tax
  • Turned down offer because he wants to win titles with Arsenal

Ozil has revealed that last summer one of the infamous Chinese Super League teams approached him with an offer that would make most people’s head spin: £100m over five years. That’s around £380kpw AFTER TAX.

However, the playmaker feels that he’s got unfinished business at Arsenal.

“When I got an offer from China last summer,” he writes in his autobiography, Gunning for Greatness: My Life, “I didn’t need advice because the offer was too absurd. The Chinese were prepared to pay me £100million net over a period of five years. A fairy tale amount of money that went beyond the limits of my imagination.”

“In spite of this it took me less than three minutes to decline the offer. My agent, Erkut, called me to let me know about the bid. He said: ‘I think we’re agreed what we’re going to do, aren’t we? You won’t consider it, will you?’

“‘I’m nowhere near the end of my career,’ I replied. ‘I still want to win titles with Arsenal. I don’t want to play in China no matter how much they’re willing to pay. No way.'”

The story is reassuring considering that many assumed his reluctance to sign a new contract with the Gunners, despite his love for the club and city, was down to money. Now we know that he allegedly had the chance to go for an astronomical pay rise and he didn’t take it.