Goalkeeper position in the DFB team: The trend is towards Oliver Baumann

If you didn’t know that a computer program creates the Bundesliga game plan, then you could now believe in the influence of higher powers. This Sunday, FC Bayern and TSG Hoffenheim meet in the Munich Arena, and anyone who wants to see things more intense can also see this top game as a personal duel. Manuel Neuer or Oliver Baumann? Who will be in goal for the national team at the World Cup this summer?

There are questions that arise even though they are not officially asked. Neuer has resigned from the DFB team and recently gave the impression that he wanted to leave it at this decision; and since those in charge at FC Barcelona used Marc-André ter Stegen’s injury story(s) to drive him out of the goal, Baumann is actually the German national goalkeeper anyway. However, the name Neuer is so big and the name Baumann is so small that there has been a lot of speculation about who will be in charge of the World Cup goal recently, and since Thursday there has been a hard fact: Marc-André ter Stegen has basically canceled his trip to the tournament in North America himself.

“The worst” happened last weekend, he wrote on his social media channels and he would be out for “several months.” The goalkeeper will have surgery on Friday; It is said to be a muscle injury in the back of the thigh “involving the tendon,” as one person in the know says. The exact duration of the downtime can only be estimated after the operation. But even if he returns just on time, national coach Julian Nagelsmann will hardly be willing to entrust the World Cup goal to a keeper who was rarely in goal before this injury. In order to gain match practice, ter Stegen was loaned out from FC Barcelona to FC Girona.

Many in the industry now assume that Nagelsmann has no choice but to make Neuer number one again. However, Neuer would have to want that too, which is not as certain as everyone assumes. The high rhythm of games and training at FC Bayern is certainly taking its toll on the almost 40-year-old, and Neuer has not yet developed a feeling for how he would answer such a request. There are currently some indications that Oliver Baumann will guard the DFB goal at the World Cup. Of course, one can assume that there will be wonderful new debates after the game on the weekend.