The best of all time? This Germany hero needs no cape
The best of all time? This Germany hero needs no cape While the Germany national team looks to put the finishing touches on its World Cup preparations this summer with today’s match against Switzerland during the international break, one of the defining figures of Germany’s last great World Cup triumph, Manuel Neuer, is celebrating his 40th birthday. The veteran has revolutionized modern goalkeeping like no one else and, in many of his 124 international appearances, was Germany’s ultimate insurance policy.
The fact that calls for a Neuer comeback in the national team shirt have grown louder again in recent months ahead of the next World Cup in the USA, Mexico, and Canada has nothing to do with a German goalkeeping problem. Despite Marc-André ter Stegen’s terrible injury luck, Germany remains extremely well stocked with Oliver Baumann as the new number one and a host of talented keepers such as Jonas Urbig, Alexander Nübel, Finn Dahmen, and Noah Atubolu. Those calls are more a reflection of the immense stature Neuer still holds even in the late autumn of his career.
He laid the foundation for that hero status not only with great saves, but with a completely unique interpretation of the goalkeeping role that shook football’s tactical structure. Anyone who wants to understand why half of football-loving Germany still gets nostalgic today when a keeper leaves his box has to go back to Porto Alegre in 2014. Neuer’s manifesto The World Cup round-of-16 match against Algeria was Neuer’s manifesto.
With that performance, he etched himself into the long-term memory of an entire generation of fans. He was not simply a goalkeeper there; he played sweeper, defensive midfielder, and emotional shock absorber all in one. He slid in to cut out through balls near the halfway line as if it were the most normal thing in the world, repeatedly putting out fires whenever Germany’s defense had been played through.
From that moment on, football Germany no longer had just the “Kaiser,” the “Bomber of the Nation,” or the “Titan. ” From then on, Neuer would carry the nickname “Manu, the sweeper. ” Andreas Köpke, who worked with Neuer as Germany’s goalkeeping coach from his debut in 2010 until Euro 2021, even once joked to 'dpa' that Neuer could “easily play in the 3.
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