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Re: That's Mesut Ozil in the background. Not bad! jenny_jenkins December 15 2011, 01:05:37 UTC
It gets better/worse. He raised fish and sold them to give his mother the money for food, though he did once exchange his nicest fish for a Madrid jersey.

Our resident cherub's father (Angel di Maria) worked in a coal-yard. Angel helped out and would come home as a nipper completely covered in coal-dust from head to foot but would run out to play football instead of washing up. His first childhood club sold him for 35 footballs (you read that correctly). Not money - footballs.

Marcelo's grand-father came up with the paltry fees for his football academy (not paltry to them though - I think it was 8 Reals a day - which is nothing to most of us) by working in some sort of road-side stand. One day they went to a cafe, and put a coin into a machine where you could win things by guessing an answer to a question. They randomly put their money on "Croatia" and won 80 Reals. There was money for the Academy! Everyone was so happy! And "that day I got to eat burgers and drink coca-cola."

It makes working class kids like Sami Khedira and Mesut Ozil (with their perfect, government subsidized, German dental-care - they both have perfect smiles, true story!) come off looking rather privileged, even though the first is the son of an immigrant factory worker married to a German mother, and the second is from a family of metals miners who came over from Turkey.

It's what I love the best about the team, actually. So many very unlikely kids from all over the world somehow made their way there. You can't always believe it happened - but it did.

Please excuse the wetness on my cheek. I have allergies.

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Re: That's Mesut Ozil in the background. Not bad! genbu_no_miko24 December 15 2011, 01:11:09 UTC
Yeah I've seen that a few footballers have stories like this too :") It's really incredible to see what they've come from and where they are now.

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*sniffle* jenny_jenkins December 15 2011, 01:18:43 UTC


Who would have thought I'd end up wailing all over a post full of half-naked 'ballers?

But I suddenly feel so emotional about all the things these gorgeous half-naked 'ballers have gone through.

<3

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Re: *sniffle* genbu_no_miko24 December 15 2011, 01:26:43 UTC
lol seriously it's not even a misery post xD

this is you


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