FC Bayern’s game against Darmstadt delivered several stories: three sendings off in the first half, a hat trick from Harry Kane, eight goals from Munich – and of course Manuel Neuer’s comeback after more than 300 days in his 479th Bundesliga game. The goalkeeper broke his tibia and fibula on a ski tour in December 2022, which initially triggered complicated transfer periods and then heated debates. The relationship between Neuer and FC Bayern was severely disrupted by the dismissal of his close confidant and goalkeeping coach Toni Tapalovic. In an exclusive interview with SZ, Neuer said at the time: “I had the feeling that my heart was being ripped out, that was the craziest thing I’ve experienced in my career.”
So what does it mean for the German champions that their long undisputed number one is back? How has the club changed, how has Manuel Neuer changed since his injury? How will the new constellation work with head coach Thomas Tuchel and goalkeeping coach Michaelrechner? And what role will the 37-year-old play in the future in the German national team, where Marc-André ter Stegen is now number one and Ilkay Gündogan is the captain?
Moderator Anna Dreher talks about this in this episode of “And Now to Sport” with the two national team reporters Christof Kneer, who also reports on FC Bayern, and Philipp Selldorf, who knows Neuer well from his time at FC Schalke.
The Süddeutsche Zeitung’s football podcast provides insights into the most important football topic of the week. Every Monday, SZ sports editors discuss the background to current events. You can find the football podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, Audio Now and all other popular podcast apps. In this text we explain how you can listen to our podcasts. You can find all of our podcasts at: www.sz.de/podcast. You can reach the editorial team of this podcast via [email protected].
