Mesut Özil is the best attacking midfielder of the generation. A thread.

First of all, an overall view of Mesut Özil’s career up to date:

For club:
600 apps
105 goals
216 assists

For country:
92 apps
23 goals
40 assists

Combined, he has 384 goals + assists over his career, this is the most of any other attacking midfielder since 1994.

Mesut Özil is the only player in recorded history who has been the top scorer or assist provider in 3 of the top 5 European leagues.

Dominance.

He has also been top assist provider in:

- the World Cup
- Uefa Euro’s
- Champions League
- Europa League

The only player in history to achieve this.

In terms of assisting there’s very few that compare to Özil in history. He has the best assist per 90 ratio (0.43) of any player to have recorded over 200 assists since records began - including Lionel Messi (0.42).

In the biggest games, Mesut Özil has 17 G+A in UCL, Euro and World Cup KO stage matches combined, more than the likes of Sneijder, Hazard, De Bruyne, David Silva.

Between his CL debut in 2007 and his most recent appearance in 2017, only Ronaldo & Messi have provided more assists than Özil (24).

He also holds multiple CL records such as:
- Most chances created in a single knockout fixture (12)
- Most chances created in a season (39)

Don’t just take my word for it, here are some of the best quotes about Mesut Özil from some of the greatest players in history:

Cristiano Ronaldo: “Mesut Özil made me the world’s best striker.”

Thierry Henry: “I would have loved to have played with him.”

Arsène Wenger: “if you love to watch football, you love to watch Özil.”

Andrés Iniesta: “He understands football better than anyone else.”

José Mourinho: “Özil is unique. There is no copy of him, not even a bad copy. He is the best number 10 in the world.”

Philipp Lahm: “Mesut is probably the most intelligent player I have ever played with. Mesut sees things only he can.”

Xavi on the best players he has ever faced in El Clásico: Lots of players but the ones I can't forget are Ronaldo [Nazario], Luis Figo, Raul, Fernando Hierro, Roberto Carlos, Zidane and in the later years Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil.”

Pep Guardiola: “In terms of quality, I enjoy him. I suffered from him when he was in Madrid, I admire him a lot.”

Sergio Ramos on Özil leaving Madrid: “He is a unique player and it makes me sad.”

“If it were up to me, he would be one of the last to go.”

Cafu: “Özil is fantastic! One of the best in the world. Not only a great player but a great human being.”

Michel Platini to Özil after Germany won the 2014 World Cup: "I don't take the shirt from many players, but I'd love to have yours. It would be an honour."

Andrea Pirlo: “He's maybe the most creative player in Europe. He creates an unbelievable amount of chances for attackers playing ahead of him. He has vision like nobody else in Europe."

Johan Cruyff: “Ozil has enough quality to adapt his game to a team like Barcelona. If you have the ability to play one-touch football, you have a lot of quality."

Mark Lawrenson: “José Mourinho once said to me, when sometimes he would turn his back in training with Real Madrid he could always tell when Özil struck the ball.”

"It made a different sound."

Ter Stegen: "As a footballer, Özil is a player who can do unthinkable things, just like Messi."

Paul Scholes: ‘I found myself agreeing with Arsene Wenger. [He said] I would have loved to have played alongside Mesut Ozil – and that would be right’.

The likes of Mourinho and Marcelo have included Özil in their all time best XI’s, whilst Cazorla believes he is in the best Arsenal team of all time.