On Saturday, goalkeeper Manuel Neuer will play the 21st World Cup game of his career – no DFB goalkeeper has ever played more.
Manuel Neuer has been playing for the national team for more than 17 years. He will play his 126th international match against Ivory Coast on Saturday. That’s an average of 7.4 games per year. Neuer was often injured for a long time, and he was initially only intended as a replacement for René Adler for the 2010 World Cup.
The cut is so plausible, but another number is surprising. On average, Neuer only played 1.6 test matches per year. His debut in June 2009 in the United Arab Emirates was followed by just 27 games without any points being awarded. The last of these was more than two years ago, because he was missing from the direct preparation for the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico because of the calf that was bothering him for several weeks.
21st World Cup game against Ivory Coast
Manuel Neuer has significantly more games in major tournaments than appearances in test matches – 20 at European Championships, 20 at World Championships. With his 21st appearance in Toronto, he will become the record holder among goalkeepers.
Neuer is the man for the important moments, even at the age of 40, otherwise national coach Julian Nagelsmann would not have brought him back with a much-discussed move.
“It’s often been the case that I wasn’t quite there before tournaments,” said the goalkeeper on Thursday in Winston-Salem, the German team’s base. “Maybe that’s a good omen.”
The calf was already bothering me in 2014
When he said that he thought of 2014, because Neuer had to miss a few weeks before the 2014 World Cup. First the calf strained, then it was a shoulder injury that worried an entire nation. In the end, Neuer won the title, which he now wants to win again: “If I didn’t see the chance, I wouldn’t be sitting here.”
Manuel Neuer is the first German national player to play an international match over the age of 40. He calls it a “certain age”, which is why he is “asked a lot by younger players”. The certain age also means that he now has the experience to know his body better. “Sleep is important, as is nutrition,” he said. “I know what I have to do. When I was 25, I didn’t know that yet.”
Manuel Neuer doesn’t like to talk about himself. He prefers to talk about the team, about football, about the opponent. In an interview with ARD, when asked what he might have changed in recent years, he said: “Football has become different, much faster, the rules have changed.” He has always played along and interpreted the role of goalkeeper offensively.
Like against Algeria
Against Curacao, 7-1 at the start, there was this one scene that seemed to be 2014 again. The old man was the old man, ran out of his goal almost to the halfway line and cleared with his head. The round of 16 against Algeria in Brazil, this shock win against the clear outsiders, was one of those games in which Neuer earned the reputation of being the best.
With FC Schalke 04 he once had a game in the Champions League against FC Porto, which was also part of the series. The last of these games so far was in the quarter-finals of the Champions League with FC Bayern at Real Madrid a few weeks ago.
He had to go to the World Cup, they said afterwards. As Neuer confirmed on Thursday, without telling the whole story, there had long been discussions with the national coach about a possible return.
In Qatar like a normal goalkeeper
The return is not without risk – Manuel Neuer is no longer the same person he was in 2014 twelve years later. By 2022 at the latest in Qatar, doubts arose as to whether he was still the same. The opponents scored goals against Neuer that they would otherwise only have managed against the Max Mustermann goalkeepers.
Declined ratings
The figures from the Bundesliga show that his peak has been passed. In the past three seasons, the rate of blocked shots that hit his goal has consistently fallen to below 70 percent; in the past season it was less than 63 percent. In the five seasons from 2012/13 to 2016/17 it was around 80 percent.
| season | Goals conceded | Min. per goal conceded | shots blocked (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
25/26 | 20 | 93 | 62.96 |
24/25 | 15 | 102 | 68.75 |
23/24 | 33 | 62 | 65.63 |
22/23 | 11 | 98 | 73.81 |
21/22 | 26 | 97 | 72.34 |
20/21 | 42 | 71 | 68.42 |
19/20 | 31 | 96 | 73.04 |
18/19 | 23 | 100 | 62.30 |
17/18 | 2 | 135 | 75.00 |
16/17 | 13 | 180 | 79.69 |
*Source for all data: Sportec Solutions, only games in the Bundesliga are taken into account
Percentage points do not create an aura
Oliver Baumann, who was initially scheduled to be number one, achieved a better result last season. But a few percentage points do not create an aura, do not impress an opponent, do not awaken memories of so many great moments, even in the national jersey.
If Neuer plays every game in the current tournament and the national team reaches the semi-finals, he would be the German record player ahead of Lothar Matthäus, who has 25 appearances and also five participations.
“For me it is basically clear that it is my last tournament,” said Neuer in Winston-Salem. In principle, that just means that there could be another discussion perhaps in two years.