Mumbai, Jul 18 (IANS): Coming from a rural background and from a poor family, India's top wrestler Bajrang Punia is against food wastage and has recently come out in support of German footballer Mesut Ozil for doing the same.

Bajrang, who is India's best hope for a medal in wrestling at the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, gave the example of Ozil to discourage food wastage, citing an incident in which the German footballer was involved.

Punia has tweeted a photograph of Ozil, who has played for Real Madrid and Arsenal, respectfully dealing with a food item thrown at him during a match with a message.

"This is German footballer Mesut Ozil. He is one of the best footballers in the world. During a match someone had thrown a piece of bread over him and rather than kicking it aside in anger, Ozil kissed it and placed it on his forehead, before keeping it on the sidelines because he is against food wastage," translates the message, originally written in Hindi, on the picture.

Punia started his message with "Rispect (sic) [emoticon: folded hands, emoticon: heart sign]".