Former Arsenal central defender Per Mertesacker feels that the media reports in relation to racism in German football are wide of the mark and are false, as reported by Goal.
There were numerous reports that during this summers World Cup in Russia that there were some divisions between the German squad, something which the former defender feels are false.
His former Arsenal teammate and compatriot Mesut Ozil has recently retired from international football following some talk of racism being present among the German squad in recent times.
It has been widely reported that the squad were split into two sections, one of the German-rooted players and the other of those from foreign backgrounds.
The Arsenal youth coach feels that current German coach Joachim Low would not allow for this to happen in the squad having worked with him for a large amount of time in the past.
The former defender has addressed the situation in a recent interview:
I never heard anything about ‘potatoes’ or ‘kanaken’ during my time in the national team. However I have been called ‘potato’, too.
It should be understood that it is just a bit of fun, however. There were separate groups within the team during my time, too.
You simply have to be careful that this does not lead to division, like: ‘you are one team, we are the other’.
