eFootball PES 2020: After criticism: Mesut Özil flies out of the China version

After the Erdogan scandal before the 2018 World Cup, soccer star Mesut Özil once again made headlines, this time in China.

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Mesut Özil is in the headlines again because of a political statement. According to the controversial Erdogan photo before the 2018 World Cup, the star of Arsenal London recently criticized China. It dealt with the treatment of Muslim Uighurs in the country, who according to various media reports have been systematically persecuted and detained by the Chinese government.

This criticism was not well received in China – and this now has consequences in the video game area. Özil is deleted from the Chinese version of eFootball PES 2020 without further ado. This is done at the instigation of the Chinese publisher NetEase.

This justified the procedure in a statement on the social media platform Weibo: "The speech affected the feelings of the Chinese fans and violated the sporting spirit of love and peace. We have no understanding for this and do not accept or forgive it!" The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had already responded, saying that Özil had been lured to the wrong track by fake news.