Germany's former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder blasted Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Wednesday for his controversial remarks on German-Turkish footballer Mesut Özil.
"This is purely and simply unbearable," Schroder, former leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), told Suddeutsche Zeitung daily.
Germany's star player, who has Turkish origins, quitted national team on Sunday, citing discrimination and racist propaganda he faced in recent months.
In a surprise statement on Monday, Maas, a Social Democrat politician, criticized Özil's decision.
"I don't think that the case of a multimillionaire living and working in England would give us any information on the integration capacity in Germany," he claimed.
Schroder said, such comments have nothing to do with the Social Democratic views.
He also warned that Maas' remarks would play into the hands of far-right extremists.
Since May, Özil was criticized by German politicians and media outlets, for meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in London ahead of elections in Turkey.
In a series of tweets on Sunday, Özil defended his meeting, and stressed that a picture with the Turkish president was not about politics or elections.
"It was about me respecting the highest office of my family's country," he said.
Özil said far-right politicians and media used his picture with Erdoğan "as an opportunity to express their previously hidden racist tendencies" ahead of June's football World Cup.
Despite hate mails, threatening phone calls, and racist comments on social media, he got no support from the DFB or its head Reinhard Grindel, he added.
