Professional soccer player Mesut Özil currently has plenty of time to think about his future. The former international has been suspended by his employer Fenerbahce Istanbul since March and is therefore planning what is to come after King Football.

Fortnite career soon?

Ex-World Cup winner Mesut Özil will turn 34 in October, effectively reaching retirement age in the soccer world. To ensure that retirement is not boring, he is currently planning what awaits him after his soccer career. As his advisor Erkan Sögüt told the English Telegraph in an interview, Mesut wants to hang up his soccer boots and fight his way through Fortnite with an assault shotgun and a pickaxe.

He's going to get more into e-sports, play himself, and maybe become an e-sportsman. To be honest, he's really good at Fortnite and I think one day it wouldn't surprise me if he competes. […] He owns a team – M10 Esports – and he has players. He has a games forge in Germany. He has soccer, like Fifa, and Fortnite.

Even though Özil is currently still a footballer and has a contract with Fenerbahce Istanbul, he has been suspended since March 20 after a dispute with head coach Ismail Kartal. Sögüt did not say when Özil plans to swap team bus for battle bus; in any case, his contract in Turkey runs until the summer of 2024. Özil is in good company with his interest in esports. Rapper Snoop Dogg, for example, recently joined the U.S. clan FaZe and also likes to play a few games of Call of Duty himself.

M10 Esports

Özil has good prerequisites for an esports career. When he's not playing Fortnite himself and streaming on Twitch, he takes care of his own EsportTeam “M10 Esports”. Since 2018, the 33-year-old has been running the organization, which competes against other teams in FIFA as well as Fortnite. Even though his team currently only has three active players, it can be assumed that M10 Esports will continue to grow in the future. Currently, there are rumors about a move of the midfielder to the USA, which his advisor, however, already denied: “I think he will not play in another club. I can't imagine that – it will be Fenerbahçe and that's it.”

So it could well be that we will see Mesut Özil as a Fortnite pro from 2024 at the latest. As it looks at the moment, however, the project is still in its infancy. The homepage of his team looks rather unfinished at the moment. In the meantime, Özil can ask Eligella, Timo Werner and Kai Havertz if he can train with them in Fortnite.

Image source: Mesut Özil, Epic Games montage