Iwobi picks Cazorla as his best player ever, displeased with how Ozil left Arsenal

Everton forward Alex Iwobi has picked former Arsenal star Santi Cazorla as the best player he has seen, describing him as a "magician with the ball".

The 36-year-old spent six years at the Emirates Stadium and Iwobi had the opportunity to play along with the Spaniard and witnessed his top quality.

Cazorla won a number of individual accolades during his time at Arsenal, including the club’s Player of the Season award in the 2012-2013 season, among others.

Iwobi, who moved to Goodison Park in the summer of 2019, has chosen the former Spain international as the best player he has seen.

“I just want to say, Santi Cazorla is the best player I’ve ever seen and played with. Left foot, right foot he’s a joke,” Iwobi told Nedum Onuoha’s podcast.

“If you see his physique, and you see him on the streets in north London, you think ‘this guy just doesn’t look like a footballer’, but he’s a magician with the ball. It’s crazy.”

Meanwhile, Mesut Ozil left the Emirates Stadium in January, thus, putting an end to his eight-year stay at the club to join Turkish Super Lig side Fenerbahce, after struggling for game-time.

Iwobi expressed his displeasure with the way the midfielder unceremoniously parted ways with the Gunners, despite his contribution to the Emirates Stadium outfit. 

“Mesut Ozil. His stats speak for themselves, the type of player he is. Unfortunately, the way he left Arsenal wasn’t nice in my opinion, but he’s a great player, a great player,” he continued.

Iwobi is one of many players who had previously featured for England at youth level before switching their allegiances to the Nigeria national team.

The Nigeria Football Federation has been unable to lure some players with dual citizenship to play for the country in recent times, including Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham and AC Milan’s Fikayo Tomori.

Onuoha, of Nigerian descent, believes the NFF need to do more with their organization to enable them to get more quality players into the Super Eagles squad.

"One thing I find with some players who could play for Nigeria I feel the Nigerian Federation pick them up too late because as you said yourself if you are in England and the letter comes to say you are going to play for England you are just going to be playing for England," Onuoha said in his podcast.

"But in the same time if a letter came from Nigeria and England then you have a decision to make, most people don't get offered that decision until probably it's too late and then the perception is that they just want to go this way or go that way.

"I don't understand how they can miss so many players sometimes.

"I feel with England if a player has potential to be able to play for England and he's currently playing in Kazakhstan with a Kazakhstani name but he's got like English grandparents, England know about it and he's in the system straight away but I feel that's not the case back home".