Published21. August 2024, 16:09
Football: Manuel Neuer announces his international retirement
At 38, the iconic Bayern Munich goalkeeper has announced that he will no longer play for the German team. World champion in 2014, he has a total of 124 caps.
Manuel Neuer has been playing for the German national team since 2009.
Imago
Manuel Neuer, goalkeeper and former captain of the German national team with whom he was crowned world champion in 2014, has announced that he is ending his international career at the age of 38, after 124 caps for the Mannschaft.
“After long and intense discussions with my family and friends, I have decided to end my career with the Nationalmannschaft. Everyone who knows me knows that it was not an easy decision to make,” explained Manuel Neuer, still under contract for one year with Bayern Munich, in a video on his Instagram account and in a press release.
It is a page in the history of the German team that is turning, since he is the fourth to announce his international retirement in a few weeks after Toni Kroos, Thomas Müller and Ilkay Gündogan.
The goalkeeper therefore played his last match for the national team in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024, in Stuttgart, a defeat against the future European champions Spain 2-1 after extra time.
Holder with Germany since 2010
He is still under contract with Bayern until the end of the 2024-25 season, with the aim of reaching the Champions League final one last time at the Allianz Arena in Munich, his home ground since his transfer to Bavaria in the summer of 2011.
Trained in Gelsenkirchen, in the Ruhr, at Schalke 04 (2001/05, then professional from 2005), Manuel Neuer had his first selection with Germany on June 2, 2009 in Dubai, a 2-7 friendly victory against the United Arab Emirates. He established himself as the starting goalkeeper of the Mannschaft in the spring of 2010, just a few weeks before the start of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
After the years of Oliver Kahn (from the end of 1998 to 2005) and then Jens Lehmann (2005-2008), Germany looked for a successor to this position, and it was finally Manuel Neuer who imposed himself, becoming the world reference during the following decade. Between the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2016, Neuer has played in the last four of a major tournament four times, with the Holy Grail being the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, which he won with a team at the peak of its powers.
Manuel Neuer was crowned world champion with Germany in 2014, in Brazil.
AFP
Hindered by injuries
In recent years, Neuer has been frequently injured. In April 2017, in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, he fractured his left foot and spent more than 12 months without playing. In early December 2022, on his return from a World Cup in Qatar that ended in the first round, he suffered a fracture of his right leg (German media reported a double open fracture of the tibia and fibula).
Injuries that have not called into question his status as No. 1 in the Mannschaft’s goal, whether for the 2018 World Cup, despite the previous season without playing, or Euro 2024. Coaches Joachim Löw and Julian Nagelsmann have placed blind faith in him, despite the world-class performances of Marc-André ter Stegen with FC Barcelona.
In his position, Manuel Neuer revolutionized the role of the goalkeeper, venturing far from his penalty area with the masterpiece being the round of 16 of the 2014 World Cup against Algeria, during which he made numerous exits.
(afp)
