Mesut Ozil of Arsenal during a training session at London Colney on September 22, 2020 in St Albans, England.
Arsenal and Mesut Ozil have agreed to terminate the playmaker's contract this month, paving the way for a move to Fenerbahce.
The 32-year-old has been left out of the first-team this term, with Mikel Arteta deeming him surplus to requirements.
Arsenal have been keen to get Ozil off the wage books for some time due to his £350,000-a-week contract at the Emirates.
And the Athletic claim the Gunners have struck a deal with the former Real Madrid man, enabling him to end his seven-and-a-half stay in north London.
Ozil is now expected to travel to Turkey over the weekend to finalise his move to Fenerbahce, who have been pursuing the midfielder for a number of months.
The exiled star was due to earn £7m more between now and the end of the season.
But Arsenal will now use those funds to bolster Arteta's struggling side before the end of January.
Ozil was omitted from the club's Premier League and Europa League squads for the first half of the season.
There was no return planned for the German international for the second half of the season, leading to his exit being finalised in recent days.
Ozil has not played a competitive match since March 2020.
When asked if Ozil could feature recently, Arteta said: “We will decide what is happening in the next few days. A decision has to be made when you have to register or not register players, when you have to play them or not play them all the time.
“We know we have a really important player that is one of key players in the past few seasons for this football club.
“We had to make a decision, I had to make a decision. I made it. I knew the consequences of it.
“Now we will have to make another one in January and we will just put in the balance what is best thing for the club, what is the best thing for the team and what the intentions of the player are and try to find the right solution.”
Arsenal have been crying out for a creative midfielder in recent months and could decide to focus their transfer efforts on securing a playmaker in the coming weeks.
