2024-08-21 14:14:38
Vorhang, German. Curtains, French. Manuel Neuer, the 2014 world champion, goalkeeper and former captain of the German national team, announced on Wednesday that he will end his international career at the age of 38 after 124 appearances for the German team.
“After long and intense discussions with family and friends, I have decided to end my career at National Sociedad. Everyone who knows me knows that this was a decision that was not easy to make,” he said, still on a one-year contract with Bayern Munich Manuel Neuer explained in a video and press release on his Instagram account.
The legends retreat one by one
It’s a new page in Germany’s history as he is the fourth player to announce his international retirement in as many weeks, following Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller and Ilkay Gundogan. Therefore, the goalkeeper played the last game of the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 in Stuttgart, but lost 2-1 after extra time to the future European champions Spain.
In recent years, Neuer Often injured. In April 2017, he fractured his left foot in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals and barely played for more than 12 months. In early December 2022, after returning from the Qatar World Cup, which ended in the first round, he suffered a fracture in his right leg (German media mentioned a double open fracture of the tibia and fibula).
Injuries have not put his number one status in Germany’s squad into doubt, either at the 2018 World Cup, where he did not play last season, or at Euro 2024. Nagelsmann had blind faith in him, despite Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s world-class performances at FC Barcelona.
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