Julian Nagelsmann’s big gamble is not paying off.
Manuel Neuer had a difficult game against Ecuador on Thursday. He was at fault for the goal that condemned Germany to a 2-1 defeat at MetLife Stadium. Before that, he had suffered through a jittery half. Minutes before Gonzalo Plata stole in front of him to score at a corner, Neuer had been involved in a miscommunication with Jonathan Tah, his centre-back, that should have cost a goal.
There were other, less calamitous moments, too, but for now they do not really matter. Germany are through to the next round and, after the hopeless group-stage eliminations in 2018 and 2022, that is an important achievement. Nevertheless, Neuer can expect a turbulent few days.
He can handle it. Neuer is one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time and nobody gets to wear that accolade without being able to cope with criticism.
But this is a peculiar situation. Neuer retired from international football after the 2024 European Championship. It made sense. He was 38 and had won everything worth winning for club and country. In the years after, Hoffenheim’s Oliver Baumann established himself as a dependable replacement for Germany. Baumann is not Neuer. He is an above-average Bundesliga goalkeeper rather than an era-defining one, but he earned his spot and did nothing to lose it.
As the World Cup gradually got closer, Neuer’s retirement started to look more temporary — to the German media, at least. The possibility of him returning for this tournament became an almost perpetual topic and a constant source of speculation. Still, whenever Neuer or Nagelsmann was asked about the possibility, they flatly denied it would happen and, more than once, rolled their eyes at the questions.
As recently as February, Neuer insisted that his retirement was irreversible and “set in stone”. He even wished Baumann and the national team luck for the summer, saying that he would be watching along with the rest of us.
That position did not hold. Forgetting that it was tough on Baumann, who is 36 and will presumably never now play at a World Cup, it was a gigantic risk for Nagelsmann to take.
Neuer has had a good season for Bayern Munich, but he was not infallible. While he had a miraculous game in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid, he was poor in the return game. That 180 minutes summed up his year: he had great moments and ordinary ones. There were times when he looked ageless and as if he could play forever, but there were other moments when he creaked and seemed jarringly mortal.
Baumann (right) had replaced Neuer, but has reverted to a deputy role after the Bayern goalkeeper came out of international retirement (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
Great goalkeepers seem invulnerable. They are so consistently excellent that nothing they do causes any sort of surprise. Rather, it is their mistakes that silence stadiums and leave fans rubbing their eyes. Neuer has spent nearly two decades in that category, but his errors are common enough now just to be seen as the cost of doing business — they are the price payable for keeping him and everything that he represents in goal. It’s still worth it, but it’s not like it used to be.
Neuer is also physically brittle and that’s another tax. He suffered four significant injuries this season and missed Germany’s final warm-up game against the United States because of the most recent, a calf problem sustained in the middle of May.
That’s part of Nagelsmann’s gamble, too. Having uprooted Baumann and bruised the ego of a goalkeeper who gave his country a steady string of 7-out-of-10 performances, he has placed his faith in one who missed a month before the World Cup began and whose fitness cannot be entirely relied upon. Germany’s ambition is to play eight games during this World Cup’s five weeks; that’s a lot to ask of a 40-year-old goalkeeper.
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And this is going to be an unavoidable theme for the rest of the tournament. One way or the other, after every game that Germany play, Neuer is going to be the story. Just like that Real Madrid quarter-final back in April, he is doomed at this tournament to a binary existence, within which he’s only defying age or succumbing to it.
The analysis is going to be painful. Every cross, clearance, catch and parry is going to be measured against what Neuer was as a goalkeeper. Moreover, it’s all going to take place within the context of that retirement U-turn. How could it not be, given how late it occurred and how much scrutiny it has invited?
For better or worse, it leaves Neuer and Nagelsmann joined at the hip. Together, they head to Boston on Monday, where they will hope for better.
