Gunnersaurus: Mesut Ozil offers to pay wage of Arsenal mascot
- Published
Mesut Ozil greeted by mascot Gunnersaurus before a Champions League tie against Paris St-Germain in 2016
Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil has offered to pay the salary of Jerry Quy, the man who plays the role of club mascot Gunnersaurus.
On Monday it was revealed that Quy, who has been part of the matchday experience at Arsenal for 27 years, was one of 55 redundancies.
“I was so sad that Jerry Quy, aka our famous and loyal mascot Gunnersaurus and integral part of our club, was being made redundant after 27 years,” said the 31-year-old German in a post on Twitter.
“As such, I’m offering to reimburse Arsenal with the full salary of our big green guy as long as I will be an Arsenal player so Jerry can continue his job that he loves so much.”
Arsenal said they had to make staff redundant because of the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Gunners' first-team players and head coach Mikel Arteta agreed a 12.5% pay cut in April. The club's executive team also agreed to waive more than a third of their salaries over the next 12 months.
Allow Twitter content?
This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.
Arsenal signed midfielder Thomas Partey for £45m from Atletico Madrid on Monday’s transfer deadline day.
Ex-Germany international Ozil has been with the Gunners since 2013, with his contract set to expire at the end of the season. He is paid a reported £350,000 a week, although he has not played so far in 2020-21.
As a result of the pandemic, no fans have been able to attend a Premier League game since March.
Football X Music playlist: Listen to your team's curated pre-match tracks
Freddie Flintoff: England star talks to Headliners about his battle with bulimia
