Mesut Ozil has announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 34.

It doesn’t matter how things ended for the midfielder in north London, when you consider he gave 7.5 years of his career to Arsenal.

The signing of Ozil was marked as a sight for change in the transfer front at Arsenal, as spending £42.5m for a midfielder was an absurd amount of money – how things change.

We’d signed an absolute midfield magician from Real Madrid, a player of that magnitude had chosen Arsenal which at the time was something to shout about as the club had a project feel about it rather than the need to recruit from outside for big money.

We still operate in that way to an extent, there’s nothing wrong with that, but the moment we captured the signature of Ozil, there was a taste of luxury that we had been deprived of for some time.

Players were leaving for rival clubs and rival clubs were signing players deemed to be outside of the pull of Arsenal, but not Ozil.

The growth of the club today makes the signing of Ozil look like a routine one, but I don’t think many Arsenal fans could forget the excitement when Sky Sports reported that he was our player.

His debut was a thing of beauty, seeing an ex Real Madrid star donning the yellow and blue away kit at the Stadium of Light felt fictional.

It all became real as he plucked the ball out of the air and served it up on a plate for Olivier Giroud to register his first assist in English football.

Ozil was my favourite Arsenal player for years, a Rolls Royce midfielder that was so distinct in how he played and carried himself.

He came across so quiet but hit levels so loud in his vision and passing ability, there was no one like Ozil on his day.

The issue became that despite his quality, we only saw it every now and then, but when we did it was unforgettable.

The Leicester at home game was poetic. The assists, the passes, the goal, the hype that Ozil carried when he put himself in gear was like no other.

The signing of Ozil was huge, but the signing of his counter-part Alexis Sanchez was even more so.

When the two combined it felt like no one else was on the pitch, they set the bar for Arsenal signings going forward in the Emirates era, it’s just such a shame that it was short and sweet in hindsight.

It felt as though Ozil left a lot sooner than he did, performance wise and with affairs going on off the field, his departure was less painful than we could’ve imagined when he first signed.

His retirement comes as sad news, as he was such a prolific player in world football with the ability to break teams open with a single pass.

The player faced times of such adversity during his playing career, it’s time for him to enjoy life away from the pitch and out of the spotlight.

We wish Mesut all the best in his retirement and thank him for the unforgettable times he graced us with in an Arsenal shirt.

An Emirates era great.