The price of speaking their mind is particularly high for sportspersons

Mesut Ozil with Turkish roots, chose to condemn the Chinese government's treatment of Uighur Muslims in the country's Xinjiang province

Now is perhaps a good time to admit that I’ve started feeling genuinely sorry for Mesut Ozil. If his embarrassingly limited game time for Arsenal wasn’t depressing enough, football fans across China are burning his shirts and calling for Arsenal to terminate his contract — the disappearing act may be an Ozil patent, but his fans are pulling one on him now. All because the playmaker, a German footballer with Turkish roots, chose to condemn the Chinese government’s treatment of Uighur Muslims in the country’s Xinjiang province. China’s communist government, in an expected display of exemplary intolerance, has even gone