World Cup-winning former footballer Mesut Ozil visited northern Cyprus to boost incumbent Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s election campaign with less than three weeks to go until election day. According to Tatar’s office, Tatar “briefed Ozil on the Cyprus issue and discussed the new policy he has developed in collaboration with the motherland, the Republic of Turkey”, that policy being a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem. Later during his visit, Ozil visited Cyprus Turkish Football Association chairman Hasan Sertoglu, who presented him with a jersey of the Turkish Cypriot communal football team. That summer, he played a pivotal role as Germany won their fourth World Cup and their first since reunification, though his career never reached such heights again. He never played for Germany again after the World Cup.