Mesut Özil playing for D.C. United seems unlikely. But it’s not impossible.

Mesut Özil, who won the 2014 World Cup title with Germany, has been with Arsenal since 2013. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press)Every few months since the summer of 2019, reports linking D.C. United to superstar Mesut Özil have created waves around the globe.

Until now, the thought of the German playmaker hypnotizing audiences at Audi Field was too implausible to take seriously. He was too good and made far too much money for MLS. (Ozil earns more in a week — $470,000 — than most United players in a year.)

But as Özil’s tenure at Arsenal in the Premier League winds down — and, at 32, his career enters the next phase — United’s prospects of acquiring one of the sport’s most artful players…