MANUEL NEUER: I Know How Mesut Ozil Plays His Penalty

“I know how Mesut Ozil takes penalties. I knew he would wait a long time before deciding in which corner to shoot but of course he could have picked any corner.” – Manuel Neuer on his saved penalty from Mesut Ozil.

Mesut Ozil and Manuel Neuer have been team mates for Germany’s international side for some time as well as in the Under-21s.

What is not that well know is they even went to the same school – as the picture above proves. Both Mesut Ozil and Manuel Neuer went to the Gesamtschule Berger Feld school which is close to Schalke’s Veltins Arena. It is one of the largest secondary schools in Germany and often features highly rated young footballers who go on to play for Schalke.


You wouldn’t fancy playing against a school side featuring Mesut Ozil and Manuel Neuer! But this must have been the case for many young Germans about a decade ago.

Neuer even spoke of his surprise in the lead up to Bayern’s Champions League match at Arsenal that he would be playing against players he knew so well, including an old school mate – see video below.

This of course begs the question: Should Mesut Ozil have taken Arsenal’s penalty last night, against a goalkeeper who knows him so well?

Its easy to say after the event, with Ozil seeing his effort saved but it may also explain why the Arsenal playmaker was so shocked for quite a long time afterwards.