In a surprising bit of news, new Germany boss Jürgen Klopp has named Marc-André ter Stegen as his preferred starting goalkeeper.
This comes after Manuel Neuer initially came out of retirement just for the 2026 FIFA World Cup only to retire afterwards. During times where Neuer wasn’t the starting goalkeeper, it was shared between players like Ter Stegen, Alexander Nübel, and most recently Oliver Baumann (who will — allegedly — not get the call for the upcoming games):
Ter Stegen spent most of his international career as the understudy to Neuer, and sometimes he would not perform at the level asked of him despite strong showings at club level. With Neuer now out of the picture, the race to be the starting goalkeeper for Germany is wide open and Ter Stegen just so happened to be picked.
The FC Barcelona loanee has one thing against him: his age. At 34, there’s not a lot of time left and his performances might not be on par with his past when he was undoubtedly better. Whatever Klopp saw in him must’ve impressed him that much, so hopefully Ter Stegen shows us why Klopp picked him.
Join the conversation!
Sign up for a user account and get:
- New, improved notifications system!
- Fewer ads
- Create community posts
- Comment on articles, community posts
- Rec comments, community posts
