Failure of integration or symbol of racism: The case of soccer star Mesut Özil.

In May 2018, Mesut Özil, a third‐generation Turkish immigrant, was photographed with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This incident was constructed by the media and politicians as an endorsement for Erdoğan in the upcoming Turkish election and resulted in a public discussion about Özil's loyalty to German democratic values. The debate intensified especially after the World Cup and led to Özil's resignation from the national team via social media on 22 July 2018, where he cited racism against him as one of his reasons. Newspapers, news magazines and tabloids all over the world covered the story, discussing racism and the failure of German integration policies. Through a qualitative media content analysis of German national newspapers and tabloid press articles following the publication of the photograph of Erdoğan and Özil on 14 May 2018, this paper will analyse how Özil was portrayed in the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]