Former Everton winger Anwar El Ghazi is reportedly considering a surprise return to English football, with talks underway over a possible move to Cardiff City.
The 29-year-old is in negotiations to terminate his contract with Mainz, which would allow him to join the Welsh club.
Earlier this month, El Ghazi won a wrongful dismissal case against the Bundesliga club at the Mainz Labor Court, which ruled in his favor and awarded him more than $1 million in unpaid wages and bonuses.
Mainz had initially terminated his contract following a series of social media posts about the Israel-Gaza conflict. However, the court ruled in favour of El Ghazi on 12 October.
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Despite having been reinstated on 31 October after clarifying his position advocating “peace above all else” and calling for “more empathy” and understanding of the history of the conflict, Mainz released him a week later.
The club’s decision came after El Ghazi refused to retract his previous statements, stating on social media: “I do not distance myself from what I said and I stand for humanity and I am on the side of the oppressed until the last day I breathe.”
?Cardiff are in talks to sign former Villa winger Anwar El Ghazi. It’s complicated and not yet decided.
El Ghazi was released by Mainz in October after a social media post related to the Israel-Palestine conflict, but a German court ruled in his favor this month. https://t.co/72k4V1Qd3v photo.twitter.com/3jePd7Jm8c
— Glen Williams (@GlenWilliams12) July 30, 2024
El Ghazi, who made 119 appearances and scored 26 goals for Aston Villa (including a key role in their promotion to the Premier League in 2019), also had a brief loan spell at Everton in the second half of the 2021/22 season before moving to PSV in the summer of 2022.
The potential move to Cardiff is still in the works and has not yet been finalised.
