When Borussia Dortmund meets FC Bayern on Saturday evening (6:30 p.m.), Gregor Kobel and Manuel Neuer will probably also face each other in goal. The BVB keeper will most likely return between the posts after a muscle fiber tear. Before the game, the Swiss compared himself and the Munich keeper and revealed what he learned from him.
Since his transfer from VfB Stuttgart in the summer of 2021, Gregor Kobel has immediately proved to be a support and an important factor for the defensive players in front of him. The 24-year-old goalkeeper has now commented on the upcoming duel with FC Bayern, focusing in particular on Manuel Neuer.
When asked by the Swiss “Blick” what he would like from his opponent, Kobel said: “One or the other title in the Bundesliga. And he was still world champion and world goalkeeper. But I train for things like that.”
When asked where he might even be better than Neuer, the Swiss national player avoided an evaluation. “I don’t like to talk about myself at all,” said Kobel simply, but added: “But he was an inspiration and an encouragement to me, always.”
There is nothing that he wants to take over from Neuer one-to-one, said Kobel, who has kept three clean sheets in his five Bundesliga appearances and conceded four goals (three of them in the painful 2-3 last-minute defeat against Werder Bremen). But of course he looks “at many other goalkeepers, tries to adapt certain things in training and in the game and then see if it suits me”.
These old stars are role models for BVB keeper Kobel
In the case of Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer, “it was how you stand up and anticipate as a goalkeeper. How he moves and positions himself is super exciting,” explained Kobel.
In addition to Neuer, Kobel also looked very closely at three old stars. “Gigi Buffon, because he wanted to learn at any age. And Oliver Kahn, because the 2002 World Cup was the first that I remember. His presence, him as a guy – that fascinated me as a child,” counted the BVB goalkeeper two colleagues of his trade. “And also Jens Lehmann, who was a goalkeeper for Germany in 2006,” Kobel remembered from his childhood.
