Mesut Ozil sued by his father after sacking him as agent

Mesut Ozil's relationship with his own father may have been destroyed by a legal battle.

Mustafa Ozil had taken the Mesut Ozil Marketing Company to court, demanding £495,000 in lost earnings on sponsorship deals. Son Mesut responded by demanding the return of an £800,000 loan.

The case was eventually settled outside of court last month, but the Dusseldorf state court only confirmed the settlement this week.

His bother Mutlu has been taking care of Mesut's affairs for the past year.

Until last year, Mustafa Ozil has been his son's agent, as well as an executive at the 'Mesut Ozil Marketing Company'. In the summer of 2013, Mustafa not only negotiated his son's move from Real Madrid to Arsenal, but also a multi-million pound sponsorship deal with adidas.

The relationship between father and son broke down shortly afterwards, however, with Mesut Ozil apparently dismayed at the manner in which his parents had split up. The Germany player sacked his father, taking on his brother Mutlu as his new agent.

Mustafa was also at the heart of his son's messy exit from Real Madrid, launching into a vicious war of the words with Real president Florentino Perez in September 2013.

Real accused Ozil and his father of greed, while Mustafa insisted that Perez was 'not an honourable man'. Some speculated that the ensuing chaos around Mesut Ozil's person may have been a reason for his dip in confidence towards the turn of the year.

Mustafa Ozil, though, has found his own reasons. In an interview with the Cologne newspaper 'Express' this week, he has claimed that it was Mesut's girlfriend, Mandy Capristo, who destroyed the relationship between father and son.

'His girlfriend at the time put herself between father and son. She made Mesut crazy', he said.

Whatever the reason, contact between Mesut Ozil and his father is said to have been minimal in the last year, with their relationship at rock bottom.

'It's nothing new to us that there are problems between Mesut and his father,' Germany's General Manager Oliver Bierhoff told Express, 'but Mesut always puts private issues to the side. He never talks to us about them.'

Credit: Kit Holden/SportsMail