ARSENAL are still paying Mesut Ozil £315,000 a WEEK despite him leaving for Fenerbahce, reports say.
The Gunners are forking out 90 per cent of the midfielder’s salary even though he left the club in the January window.
Ozil, 32, brought his eight-year Arsenal stay to an end when he moved to Istanbul.
The midfielder had six months left on his contract with the Gunners but opted to move on to pastures new as he’d been frozen out by Mikel Arteta.
But The Athletic’s David Ornstein revealed that the club haven’t been able to cut ties just yet.
He says that the Gunners are still paying 90 per cent of the £350,000-a-week deal until the end of June.
That would make Ozil Arsenal’s second highest paid player behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang even though he doesn’t play for them.
The next highest earner is Brazilian forward Willian on £220k – almost a £100k a week less.
Ozil played just six times for his new club before suffering ankle ligament damage.
The 32-year-old hasn’t played since March 4 when he went down injured against Antalyaspor.
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There were immediate fears Ozil would be set for a prolonged stint on the sidelines.
And the 32-year-old has confirmed he’ll be out of action for the foreseeable future.
He tweeted in Turkish: “I am very sorry that I will not be able to help our team in the upcoming games due to partial tears in the inner and outer lateral ligaments of my feet.
“I will do my best to get back on the field as soon as possible.
“Thank you very much for your support and all good wishes.”
The former Real Madrid man followed up that statement with another in English.
It read: “Really sad that I won’t be able to help my team due to an outer ligament tear in the next few games, but it could have been worse and I’ll try everything to be back on the pitch soon.
“Thanks for all your messages & support.”
He reportedly agreed a deal on £2.5million per year in Turkey – or £48,000 per week.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
