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Home / Sport / Football

Football: Mesut Ozil wants to help unwanted Arsenal mascot by paying wages

NZ Herald
6 Oct, 2020 04:45 PM3 mins to read

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Arsenal mascot Gunnersaurus. Photo / Getty

Arsenal mascot Gunnersaurus. Photo / Getty

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Out-of-favour Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil wants to save Gunnersaurus from extinction.

Ozil expressed sadness today after discovering that Jerry Quy — the man who fills the Arsenal dinosaur mascot — was made redundant by the London club after 27 years.

"I'm offering to reimburse @Arsenal with the full salary of our big green guy as long as I will be an Arsenal player," Ozil wrote on social media, "so Jerry can continue his job that he loves so much."

I was so sad that Jerry Quy aka our famous & loyal mascot @Gunnersaurus and integral part of our club was being made redundant after 27 years. 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... pic.twitter.com/IfWN38x62z

— Mesut Özil (@M10) October 6, 2020

Ozil, who used the hashtag that read out "Justice for Gunnersaurus," is one of Arsenal's top-earning players — on more than US$20 million a year.

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But the German has not played since March, with Arsenal unable to offload him while trying to make cuts due to the financial impact of the pandemic.

The news sparked a wave of support from fans and celebrity supporters, with a 'Save Gunnersaurus' GoFundMe page being set up by George Allen.

"Gunnersaurus has been the Arsenal club mascot for 27 years. He's a club icon and we cannot let him become extinct," a statement on the page said.

"Played by lifelong fan Jerry Quy, it would be a terrible shame to lose him. The mascot league is the only one we've consistently been on top of, let's keep our all time top scorer on top.

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"Let's raise some money to keep Gunnersaurus going. Please give generously!"

Terrible news 😞 Love you Jerry ❤️ @Gunnersaurus pic.twitter.com/zL3G8c6MAw

— Ian Wright (@IanWright0) October 5, 2020

You’re going nowhere ⁦@Gunnersaurus⁩.
I refuse to let ⁦@Arsenal⁩ sack you. Come on ⁦@m8arteta⁩ ⁦@Aubameyang7⁩ - this is not what our club is about. 😡😡#savegunnersaurus pic.twitter.com/KuHZvtQ22Z

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 5, 2020

And this is how you treat your team mascot 👀🤜🏾😂 pic.twitter.com/CuvR9L3djL

— Michy Batshuayi (@mbatshuayi) October 5, 2020

The football community took to social media to speak out in support of the mascot and life-long fan Quy.

"WHAT? This had better not be true. Is it @Arsenal ??!" tweeted Piers Morgan.

"You're going nowhere @Gunnersaurus. I refuse to let @Arsena sack you. Come on @m8arteta @Aubameyang7 - this is not what our club is about."

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Gary Lineker said: "Shouldn't be necessary, but it might be a good move and an act of kindness for the @Arsenal players and manager to club together and sort out this absurdity."

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