Manuel Neuer is back in Germany’s squad and is expected to reclaim the starting goalkeeper job for the World Cup in North America. The return has shifted the pecking order immediately, with Germany now treating the 39-year-old as the clear first choice.
That matters now because Germany are in the final stretch before the tournament, and the goalkeeper decision had been one of the biggest selection calls hanging over the camp. Neuer has recently completed an individual training session that included light running and strength work while managing a minor calf issue, but the team still believes his presence alone changes the way it approaches matches in Group E against Curacao, Ivory Coast and Ecuador.
Teammates have not hidden how much respect he still commands. Jonathan Tah said attackers have to be especially focused when finishing against Neuer, while Nico Schlotterbeck called him probably the best goalkeeper of all time. In camp, that belief is being treated as more than praise. Germany see Neuer not just as a veteran coming back from a long absence, but as the player most likely to settle a position that had been open for discussion for months.
Oliver Baumann had strong performances during qualification, and that made the choice less straightforward than it might have looked a year ago. But Germany have now established Neuer as the clear first-choice goalkeeper, and that leaves Baumann pushed into a supporting role despite the form he showed while the team was getting to this point. Jonathan Tah summed up the mood around Neuer’s return by saying he did not say anything about it at all and then it was just the way it was, a line that underlined how naturally the hierarchy has re-formed around him.
The remaining question is not whether Germany want Neuer in goal, but whether his body will cooperate long enough to keep him there. Nearly two years after he was last with the side, Germany are monitoring his fitness carefully as the tournament approaches, and the minor calf issue is the one detail they can least afford to overlook. If he comes through the final checks cleanly, Germany will go into the World Cup with one of the sport’s most familiar faces back at the center of its plans.
