Few players divide opinion more than Mesut Ozil.

While there’s no doubt the Arsenal playmaker is a supremely talented footballer, it’s also beyond question that he doesn’t work hard enough at times and has a frustrating tendency to go missing in the big matches.

Even Arsenal supporters who have always vehemently defended Ozil have, over the past month or two, conceded the 28-year-old simply hasn’t done enough to arrest the Gunners’ recent slump. There’s only so many times he can be given a free pass because of his body language.

Some fans have even questioned why Arsene Wenger never drops the World Cup winner, regardless of how badly he plays.

But Wenger, you suspect, sticks with Ozil week-in, week-out because of the world-class talent the team’s No. 11 possesses.

Ozil joined Arsenal to continue playing regularly

When Arsenal signed him for £42.5 million from Real Madrid three-and-a-half years ago, the German was widely regarded as the best No. 10 on the planet.

Indeed, it was a genuine surprise at the time that Los Blancos allowed him to leave the Bernabeu, despite the fact they’d just splashed out a world-record fee for Gareth Bale.

Ozil has admitted that he departed Madrid for London in order to play regular first-team football after feeling that his position with the Spanish giants was in jeopardy.

How Ozil's relationship with his father was affected

But his move to the Emirates Stadium also ended up affecting his relationship with his father, Mustafa, Ozil has admitted in his new book Die Magie des Spiels', which is being serialised in Bild.

"My father didn't know that negotiation pressure. But it's just normal to have different points of view at the beginning of negotiations," Ozil is quoted as writing by Goal. "He hadn't negotiated a lot with the biggest club bosses and so he lacked serenity to deal with that provoking offer from Real Madrid in an appropriate way.

"My father slammed the door of Perez's business room and I risked to sit in the stands. Suddenly I had to act. For my career. It was not at all possible to stay anymore - especially if this decision was not based on performance criteria.

"I had to do something for my career. I called Arsene Wenger - as I promised to contact him first when there was the chance to look for another club. And there it was.”

Ozil: My dad deleted my Twitter account

Ozil goes on to reveal that his father was so annoyed at his son’s decision to dismiss him that he deleted his Twitter account.

Petty but, in a way, brilliant.

"I parted ways with my father in October 2013. He was angry and felt aggrieved. He even deleted my Twitter account as an administrator and I lost millions of followers,” Ozil adds.

"It is a sad chapter in a very long and respectful father-son relationship, which is the basis for what I achieved as a football player."

Ozil is now back on Twitter and currently has a whopping 14.1 million followers, making him one of the most popular footballers on the social media website.