Ozil was one of the breakout stars of this summer’s World Cup, and as such the 21 yr-old is garnering interest from big clubs outside Germany. He’s in the last year of his contract with Werder Bremen, a side that finished 10th in the Bundesliga last season (though they had top 3 finishes the five season prior to last).

Bremen want to resign the playmaker, but it seems crazy considering he’d draw around €20M for a transfer fee, and if he doesn’t extend his contract with Bremen he’ll be able to take his leave next summer on a free transfer. Better to take a page from Lyon’s book, and sell the young star at a massive profit, rather than try and hold on. With the money they’d make from Ozil, they could buy 5 young promising Turks and a couple new first team players to strengthen the squad short and long term.

Somewhat tangentially: Lyon are simply the best at finding underrated (thus cheap) players, developing them, and selling them when high-paying clubs come in with their wallets open. Check out the book Soccernomics for a really nice breakdown of Lyon’s strategy in the transfer market.