Mesut Ozil has risked a backlash after sitting down for dinner with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Arsenal playmaker was pictured with his fiancé Amine Gulse at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul alongside the Turkish ruler for an Iftar - the break of fasting for an evening meal during Ramadan.
Erdogan is a highly controversial figure. Since a failed coup attempt in 2016, Erdogan has increased his presidential powers and clamped down on freedom of expression.
According to Reporters Without Borders, Turkey is now the biggest jailer of journalists in the world.
Ozil, who is a third-generation Turkish-German, has been criticised for his interactions with Erdogan in the recent past in Germany.
He caused controversy for presenting him with a signed Arsenal shirt at a meeting in London in May last year, which led national team manager Oliver Bierhoff to suggest he should have been dropped from the World Cup squad as a result.
Ozil defended the meeting in a statement: 'For me, having a picture with President Erdogan wasn't about politics or elections, it was about me respecting the highest office of my family's country,' he said. 'My job is a football player and not a politician, and out meeting was not an endorsement of any policies.'
The 30-year-old retired after the World Cup having earned 92 caps for Die Mannschaft and led them to World Cup success in 2014. Ozil hit out at racism in the German FA and for making him a 'scapegoat' for Germany's miserable 2018 World Cup performance in the wake of that initial controversy.
