Mesut Özil names World Cup win 'best night' of career

Former Germany midfielder Mesut Özil has named winning the World Cup in 2014 "the best night" of his career and also revealed that he recently met with then coach Joachim Löw, after an acrimonious end of his national team career.

Özil, who announced the end of his career at age 34 earlier in the week, told Spanish sports paper Marca in an interview published on Friday that "I don't want to add any further fuel to the fire" around his quitting of the national team in 2018.

In his retirement statement on Wednesday, özil had mentioned all of his clubs - Schalke, Bremen, Real Madrid, Arsenal, Fenerbahçe and Başakşehir - but not the national team.

Özil played 92 games for Germany between 2009 and 2018 and won the World Cup in Brazil nine years ago.

He retired from the team after a group stage exit at the 2018 tournament in Russia, after coming under fire for his performances, and over a pre-tournament photo showing him together with Erdoğan.

This led to a fierce backlash and Özil accused the German Football Federation (DFB) of having not protected him well enough against racist and insulting comments, while also accusing the DFB of racism.

Löw, coach until 2021, had said on several occasions he had tried in vain to get in contact with Özil in the following years.

"I don't want to add any further fuel to the fire. In the end the DFB and I had different opinions and that's why I left the national team after the World Cup in 2018," Özil told Marca.

"Some weeks ago, I had a very friendly meeting in Stuttgart with Jogi Löw. Between us everything is absolutely fine again. I've never had a personal problem with him and we had a very successful time together. I just needed some distance from everything around the national team after the World Cup in 2018."

Özil recalled the night in Rio de Janeiro when Germany beat Argentina for the World Cup title nine years ago.

"There have been a lot of amazing victories in my career. But that was something else," he said.

"During the celebrations, it was very difficult to contemplate what had just happened. The night in Rio was the best night I've had in my football career. Even now, I still smile and get goosebumps if I think about that game. What a great memory."