Mesut Ozil has revealed he personally orchestrated his move to Arsenal after fearing he would be frozen out at Real Madrid following an ugly contract dispute.
The Germany international made the move to Emirates Stadium in a deal reported to be worth £42.5million in 2013 after three years at the Santiago Bernabeu, during which time he won LaLiga and the Copa del Rey.
Ozil revealed that he personally put the call in to Gunners boss Arsene Wenger to make the deal happen after talks with Madrid president Florentino Perez soured and led to the World Cup winner dismissing his father Mustafa as his agent.
The 28-year-old says that put a strain on his relationship with his father and that leaving Madrid was a tough decision, but felt he had no other option than to leave in order to prevent his career from stalling.
"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 wrote in his new book 'Die Magie des Spiels', which is being serialised in Bild.
"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 Florentino Perez' 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.
"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.
"It is a sad chapter in a very long and respectful father-son relationship, which is the basic for what I achieved as a football player."
