• Premier League

Ozil windfall for lowly former club

Mesut Ozil's first club are set for a financial boost after their former player's move to Arsenal © Getty Images

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Fourth-tier Rot-Weiss Essen are one of three German clubs in line to benefit from Mesut Ozil's record-breaking £42.5 million move to Arsenal.

Ozil started his career at the former Bundesliga club, before making the switch to Schalke - based in his hometown of Gelsenkirchen - in 2005 at the age of 16. A year later, on August 12, 2006, he made his Bundesliga debut for Schalke in a 1-1 draw against Eintracht Frankfurt.

After making a total of 30 appearances for Schalke, Ozil moved on to Werder Bremen in 2008, before making the £15.2 million move to Real Madrid following his eye-catching performances at that summer's World Cup finals.

All three German clubs are now due a portion of the Ozil transfer windfall. According to FIFA regulations, all clubs Ozil played for from the ages of 12 to 23 are entitled to training compensation, with a total of 5% to be divided between those clubs.

The allocation formula means both Schalke and Rot-Weiss Essen will each get a 30% share of the compensation, with the rest split between Werder Bremen and Real Madrid.

The three top-flight clubs may scarcely notice the small boost to their balance sheet, but the speculated £634,000 due to Essen - around 50% of their annual £1.27 million first-team budget - will represent a major payday for a club which went into administration in 2010.

"We will investigate the exact transfer fee and invoice Arsenal," Rot-Weiss Essen executive Michael Welling told Die Welt.

Ozil's move to Arsenal makes him the most expensive German player of all time, overtaking Mario Gotze's fee of £31.26 million paid when he moved from Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich earlier this summer.

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