Ex-national goalkeeper complains about Manuel Neuer
“He made it almost impossible for all of us”
24.06.2025 – 6:13 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
A former DFB keeper finds praise for Manuel Neuer. Then he circles the built-in chance of an entire generation of goalkeepers to the Bayern star.
For years, Manuel Neuer was an integral part of the goal of the German national team. For his former DFB competitors such as Bernd Leno, there was little space to develop. “Not only did I pull the ass card because my career took place at the same time as that of Manuel Neuer. He made it almost impossible for all of us,” the nine -time international told the magazine “11Freunde”.
“To him,” said Leno about the goalkeeper of FC Bayern, “never came by. It will be difficult if you should take it on with the best goalkeeper ever.” But Leno was not alone. Kevin Trapp and Marc-André Ter Stegen also found no way past Neuer.
After the 2024 European Championship, Ter Stegen was supposed to reserve the new inherit from the German team, but was seriously injured and suffered a tear of the patella tendon. “I have to be so honest: Marc made the bigger career, played the larger club,” said Leno about the captain of FC Barcelona, ”that’s why this makes him a better goalkeeper.”
In the absence of Ter Stegens, Leno, who has been playing for Fulham in England since 2022, could have joined the national team last autumn – but only as the third man behind Oliver Baumann and Alexander Nübel. For this, he said in a phone call to national coach Julian Nagelsmann, he was “the wrong man” that his claim was to be played. He felt that Nagelsmann replied that the door was “no further” for Leno, as “totally fair sentence”. He played his last international match so far in September 2021.