Transfer in Spain
Out of the fog: Ter Stegen’s World Cup attack in the province
Marc-André ter Stegen meets Nagelsmann’s requirement. After moving from Barcelona to Girona, he wants to prove that he has to be in the DFB goal at the World Cup. It starts in the Catalan fog.
A love photo with your girlfriend on a short trip to London. Or a fast test drive in a sports car, which World Cup hero Mario Götze also liked via social media. Marc-André ter Stegen now has significantly less time for such pleasant distractions. In the fog, the goalkeeper drove up to the sandy parking lot at Girona FC’s training ground and shook many of the club employees’ hands in a friendly greeting.
With his January move from the top club FC Barcelona to the club from the lower Spanish middle class, Germany’s long-held number one has fulfilled a core demand from national coach Julian Nagelsmann. Now, after difficult months with injury and demotion, Ter Stegen is determined to take advantage of his World Cup opportunity as a loan player in Girona.
“Now my journey in Catalonia continues and I’m really looking forward to what lies ahead,” wrote the 33-year-old. Ter Stegen didn’t say a word in his five-paragraph-long and extremely emotional farewell message to his colleagues and fans at Barça about the German national team and the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
And yet it is clear. There is only one reason for moving to the (football) province just around 100 kilometers north of his previous home. Ter Stegen wants to play, Ter Stegen has to play. Because the goal is the DFB jersey with number one. On June 14th in Houston at the World Cup opener against Curaçao and in a perfect plan also on July 19th at the finale in East Rutherford.
National coach Nagelsmann has described the conditions for a return to the DFB goal several times. Absolute fitness and continuous match practice. Otherwise there will be nothing with ter Stegen’s first appearance as number one at a really big tournament after many, many disappointments in the shadow of the all-powerful Manuel Neuer – whose DFB comeback many fans and experts are already loudly calling for.
Girona, only known internationally to football insiders, is now supposed to be the World Cup springboard for ter Stegen. “Whether this is an absolutely top European club or not is not the all-important thing,” Nagelsmann had said in advance. Of course, Ter Stegen has to “play reasonably well”.
The national coach recently seemed annoyed about the goalkeeping issue, about which he was asked again and again without any real new developments. Despite all his appreciation for the impeccably playing substitute Oliver Baumann from TSG Hoffenheim, he always held on to ter Stegen’s status as his number one under all logical sporting conditions.
Lots of tournament disappointments
There was always a bit of compensation in loyalty. Ter Stegen’s absence from the tournament is almost tragic given his class. He was only the German number one when he won the Confederations Cup in 2017 because the then national coach Joachim Löw gave his senior squad Neuer a summer off.
A year later, Neuer was in goal at the World Cup. Nagelsmann also preferred the Munich player for the 2024 home European Championships and only then made Ter Stegen his regular goalkeeper. And then, of all times, his injury drama followed, first to his knee and later to his back.
Ter Stegen has played four of his 44 international matches since the tournament in his own country. The demotion of the captain to substitute behind Joan Garcia, who was nine years his junior, at Barça by Nagelsmann’s DFB predecessor Hansi Flick was the next low blow. Public disputes between club and player included – and that after many successful years and many titles.
Flick wishes you all the best
Flick is not known as a football monster and wished his former goalkeeper all the best. “Maybe we’ll see him in the German national team at the World Cup. Fingers crossed for that. I think he has a good chance,” said the former national coach.
The first clear indication of whether Ter Stegen’s tactics are working will come in March, when Nagelsmann names his squad for the World Cup test matches in Switzerland (March 27) and against Ghana (March 30). The logical goalkeeping order would then again be ter Stegen, Baumann and Alexander Nübel. But the Neuer issue will burn like a fire – guaranteed. The Bayern goalkeeper is too good.
Ter Stegen is smart. He knows the mechanics of the business. During the first tour in Girona, he chatted with the club employees in fluent Spanish, but also inspected the weight room with a close eye. That’s what he was here for, “to train,” he said. And certainly meant more: to play.
La Liga starts on Monday (9 p.m.) with the duel against Getafe FC. His new team has recently won three times in a row and has risen from the basement to tenth place thanks to nine points in the table. Paulo Gazzaniga, who will now have to make way for Ter Stegen, only conceded one goal. With a total of 34 goals conceded after 20 games, Girona is the shooting gallery of the Spanish top class.
Ter Stegen certainly has the required number one status. Girona coach Míchel had already raved before the transfer was officially announced. “He’s a top player. What club wouldn’t like to have a goalkeeper like Ter Stegen?” If Nagelsmann says the same thing in the summer, the provincial loan was worth it for the goalkeeper.
dpa
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