After eight major tournaments as number one, it’s over for the 38-year-old 2014 world champion. In future, he will only play in goal for FC Bayern Munich. Neuer announced the decision on his Instagram account on Wednesday. After Toni Kroos and Thomas Müller, Neuer is the last world champion from Rio to be eliminated from the German selection.
“It wasn’t easy”
“The day had to come at some point. Today marks the end of my career with the German national football team. Everyone who knows me knows that this decision was not easy for me,” said Neuer. The day before, there had been reports that the long-time German number one would continue his career with the DFB team. But now the end has come. Neuer has played 124 international matches for Germany.
The next World Cup in 2026 in the USA, Canada and Mexico is no longer a goal for Neuer, who was the national team’s number one in a total of eight tournaments, starting with the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa. For Neuer, it was a success to have made it back into the German team goal after his serious skiing accident in which he broke his lower leg after the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Home European Championship as the crowning glory
National coach Julian Nagelsmann named the multiple world goalkeeper number one for the home European Championships. The tournament ended in the quarter-finals with the loss to eventual European champions Spain. “The fact that I managed to do that again, to stand on the pitch at a home European Championship, was the crowning achievement,” said Neuer. He now wants to concentrate on FC Bayern. He is under contract with the German record champions until next summer.
Nagelsmann described Neuer’s decision as a “great loss – both in sporting and human terms. Manu has shaped goalkeeping like no other in the history of football.” German Football Association President Bernd Neuendorf said: “What he has done for football in Germany and for the DFB is difficult to put into words.”
Neuer’s long-time teammate and rival within the team, Marc-André ter Stegen (32) from FC Barcelona, is now the first candidate for the number one goal in the national team. Before Neuer, Kroos and Müller also ended their careers in the national team after the European Championship. Captain Ilkay Gündogan also announced on Monday that he no longer wanted to play for the national team.