Birmingham City striker Peter Lovenkrands is delighted for Mesut Ozil over his success at Arsenal.
The pair played together at Schalke when Ozil was a teen.
Lovenkrands told arsenal.com: "Mesut was 17 but he was playing like he was in his mid-twenties. His football knowledge was brilliant. I tried to tell them not to let him go. I'm not surprised that Mesut has become such a good player because he was so talented when he was 17. The team we had was good - we almost won the league that year. We had a fantastic team and he could fit right in with that. He was that good at 17 years old. He could play with no problem.
"I think he's grown as a player. He's taken everything in his stride. He's always been that sort of player. When I knew him, he was always a fun guy who just took each day as it came. He was playing football and enjoying himself. Even when he went to Spain, he was fantastic straightaway. It's good to see."
