Julian Nagelsmann has confirmed that Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen will be Germany’s new number one following the retirement of Manuel Neuer.
On his decision to make the former Borussia Mönchengladbahc keeper the number one, Nagelsmann said (via @iMiaSanMia):
“Marc-André is the new number one. He has been captain in Barcelona for several years and is the clear number one there. He’s the same with us. I don’t want to artificially heat up the competition behind him. Oliver Baumann played very well last season and also made a good impression during the European Championship. Alexander Nübel also performed well in Stuttgart last year. The battle behind him is open, including with Kevin Trapp and Bernd Leno. The important thing is that the number one is decided.”
There were doubts on whether ter Stegen should replace Neuer, especially from former Bayern Munich and Germany midfielder Didi Hamann, but between the period after the World Cup in Qatar and EURO 2024, ter Stegen was number one and put in several decent performances before Neuer returned from the tournament.
Due to playing the bridesmaid to Neuer, ter Stegen has only made 40 international appearances for Germany after making his debut in 2012. The 32-year-old has also yet to play in a major international tournament but was part of the squad that won the 2017 Confederations Cup.
Now the competition will be to be the backup to ter Stegen. Oliver Baumann, Alexander Nübel, Kevin Trapp and Bernd Leno have all received call-ups in recent years. While on top of this, there are younger goalkeepers waiting in the wings as well such as Freiburg’s Noah Atubolu, Augsburg’s Finn Dahmen and going further down the leagues 1.FC Köln’s Jonas Urbig, all of who have the potential to feature for German national team.
GGFN | Jack Meenan
