National soccer team
Setback for Nagelsmann – Neuer has to leave injured
As of: 5:17 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
Impressive international match quota: 77 wins, 21 draws and only 19 defeats with less than one goal conceded per game are in Neuer’s DFB balance sheet. He has kept a clean sheet 47 times since 2009
Source: dpa/Arne Dedert
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On Wednesday afternoon it emerged that national coach Nagelsmann was planning to have Manuel Neuer as the number one goalkeeper for the German national team at the European Championships. Then on Wednesday afternoon the bad news: Neuer cannot take part in the test matches. His eternal rival now comes into play.
How quickly things can change within just a few hours was shown on Wednesday in Frankfurt/Main, where the German national soccer team was preparing for the test matches against France on Saturday (8:45 p.m., in the WELT sports ticker) and the Netherlands (March 26th) stays. In the midday hours the news made the rounds that the decision for the goalkeeper position had been made in favor of Manuel Neuer. The 37-year-old keeper, it was said, was ahead in the fight for number one in a duel with Marc-Andre ter Stegen – and, according to the news, would play in both upcoming international matches and also be in goal for Germany at the European Championships .
But bad news followed in the afternoon, at least from Neuer’s point of view: the Munich player was injured and left because of a torn muscle fiber in his left adductor. He sustained the injury during training in the morning. Ter Stegen, the FC Barcelona keeper, will now play for him.
“My favorite jersey will always be white,” says Toni Kroos
In a press conference, national player Toni Kroos responded to the question of how he liked the new European Championship jerseys: “Well, I’m an Adidas player. I have to say: very good, fantastic. The jerseys are always as good as we play in them.
The 37-year-old Neuer and ter Stegen, who is six years his junior, have been competitors in the DFB selection for twelve years. Both have been among the world’s best goalkeepers for years. After DFB regular goalkeeper Neuer broke his leg in a skiing accident following the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the time seemed to have come for ter Stegen. During Neuer’s long absence, the former Gladbacher finally saw himself on the way to his first major tournament as number one. Neuer has always been in the DFB goal at all World Cup and European Championship finals since 2010.
Neuer’s ambitious goals
The Bayern captain was scheduled to play his 118th international match since his debut in 2009 against France on Saturday in Lyon. Ter Stegen has made 38 appearances in the DFB goal since 2012. He had to miss the international matches against Turkey (2:3) and Austria (0:2) at short notice due to a back injury in November and was represented by Kevin Trapp (Eintracht Frankfurt).
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The highlight for Neuer in the national team was winning the title at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Ter Stegen, on the other hand, was only in goal when they won the Confederations Cup in 2017, when the then national coach Joachim Löw competed in Russia with a young team without established players like regular goalkeeper Neuer.
After his comeback in the Bayern goal almost six months ago, the ambitious Neuer had once again set his sights on taking part in the home European Championship. “I’m concentrating on myself, on my performance and will give my all again for the national team,” he said last weekend about his ambitions for a comeback as number one and added: “The coach will then decide.”
