Marc-André ter Stegen: his long and painful path to the German goal

Opinion

To measure the performance of goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen, a separate category would be needed – far from the statistics that count blocked aerial balls, saved penalties and passes played. A category that captures ter Stegen’s collective silence.

That is where the real class of the former Gladbach player lies: that he is not only able to guard the goal, but also his tongue.

Ter Stegen has been a member of the German national football team for twelve years, and in those twelve years he has had an opponent that was unbeatable for him. Ter Stegen simply couldn’t get past Manuel Neuer, even when he was weak. Neuer was number one, and that was a law of nature for the national coaches Löw, Flick and Nagelsmann.

Humiliated by Joachim Löw

There were moments for ter Stegen when other goalkeepers would have shouted their anger and disappointment out into the world. Moments like the one in the summer of 2018, when Neuer returned to the national team after a long injury break and Joachim Löw immediately declared him the first-choice goalkeeper for the upcoming World Cup in Russia. The subtext of Löw’s decision at the time was: A Neuer who has just recovered from a broken metatarsal and has no competitive experience is still better than a healthy ter Stegen who has had a strong season at FC Barcelona.

It was absurd, it was outrageous, a crying injustice.

But Ter Stegen remained silent.

Now, finally, after countless setbacks and humiliations, ter Stegen is being rewarded for his loyalty. On Saturday evening, in the Nations League match against Hungary in Düsseldorf, he will wear the number one shirt for the first time. It is the number one of Manuel Neuer, who retired in August at the age of 38, after 124 international matches and winning a World Cup title in 2014.

Marc-André ter Stegen pays tribute to Neuer’s DFB career

“The wait is over,” ter Stegen laconically commented on Thursday on his rise from first-choice goalkeeper. There was no sign of late satisfaction in his performance in Herzogenaurach, and nothing triumphant in his words. Quite the opposite. Ter Stegen used the press conference to verbally embrace the man who had taken the light off him for more than a decade. “Congratulations to him for what he has achieved in the national team,” said ter Stegen, referring to Neuer, whom he described as having had a “great career.”

Such sentences were not often heard in Germany, a country of goalkeepers. National goalkeepers were, by definition, people who considered themselves larger than life, irreplaceable and unique at the same time.

The history of the goalkeeper wars is long

This is also why there have been several goalkeeping wars at the DFB, starting in the 1960s when Hans Tilkowski threw chairs around after learning from Sepp Herberger that the young Wolfgang Fahrian from second division club Ulm would be in goal at the World Cup in Chile.

Or in the 1980s: Uli Stein against Toni Schumacher. The scandal at the 1986 World Cup, when Stein called team boss Beckenbauer a “fool” because he had chosen Schumacher.

Or in the 2000s: Kahn against Lehmann. Just before the 2006 World Cup at home, Kahn was demoted to “number 1b” by coach Klinsmann. When Klinsmann was confronted with the statement that there were experts who thought Lehmann was the better goalkeeper, Kahn replied: “There are also people who say there are aliens.” Lehmann responded by breaking off contact. “I don’t know what we should talk about,” he said. The two only reconciled shortly before the World Cup quarter-final against Argentina. Kahn patted Lehmann on the shoulder when the match went to penalties (it was the one with the note under Lehmann’s socks).

All these skirmishes must be taken into account when it comes to assessing Marc-André ter Stegen’s career. He is the first German world-class goalkeeper who did not spew venom and who took his fate as number two in stride. He dealt with things and waited patiently for the day when luck would turn his way.

That day has now come. Ter Stegen, the silent man of sorrows, is redeemed. He is promoted to the starting eleven, but he will no longer have a great career at the DFB – and therein lies a new tragedy.

He is already 32 years old. An age at which many players think about retiring. But not Manuel Neuer, as ter Stegen has painfully found out.