Ozil donates WC winnings for surgery of 23 children in Brazil

London: Arsenal`s Mesut Ozil has declared that he is donating his World Cup winnings to good causes in Brazil and would pay the surgery of 23 children in the South American country.

Ozil, who helped Germany win a fourth world crown in Brazil, had paid for the surgery of eleven sick children in the host country ahead of the tournament, in conjunction with the charity Big Shoe. Now, Ozil has revealed on his Facebook page that he would raise that number to 23 to mark the number of players in the German squad, as a personal thank-you to the people of Brazil for their hospitality during the last month, The Mirror reported. Ozil said that prior to the World Cup he supported the surgery of eleven sick children in Brazil, adding that since Germany`s victory is not only due to eleven players but to their whole team, he would raise the number to 23 now. Ozil`s decision to publicly announce what he was doing came following a false story that had earlier declared that the midfielder would be donating his World Cup winnings towards the crisis in Gaza . The Arsenal star`s representative Roland Eitel said that the claim that Ozil donated money is not true, adding that it might happen in the future, who knows, but for now he donated money to causes in Brazil.