National soccer team: No joke: Baumann’s golden autumn in the DFB selection

Oliver Baumann could go back to his hometown before his second international match – by bike. The 34-year-old, who is experiencing a golden autumn after patient years on the bench in the national team, was born in tranquil Breisach am Rhein, a good 25 kilometers from the city The venue is Freiburg. Of course, his appearance on Saturday (8:45 p.m./RTL) in the Nations League against Bosnia-Herzegovina has nothing to do with that.

It’s always “such a running joke,” said national coach Julian Nagelsmann, that when it comes to the starting eleven for the DFB selection, things aside from athletic performance supposedly play a role. Birthdays, for example, or when a professional comes nearby and deserves a reward as a local hero. No, the national coach is not interested in that.

After Marc-André ter Stegen (32) suffered a serious knee injury, Nagelsmann expressed his confidence in the substitutes Baumann and Alexander Nübel (28). There will probably be a division of labor again at the end of the year; Nübel will most likely play his second international match on Tuesday (8.45 p.m./ZDF) in Budapest against Hungary. In October, Nagelsmann said that Baumann was “a touch” ahead.

“Super relaxed” exchange between competitors

“Sure, we are competitors and in the end everyone wants to play,” said Nübel during a media round this week. “But the exchange is fair, we get along well, it’s not like we avoid each other.” It’s even “super relaxed” in the small circle of DFB goalkeepers. The third goalkeeper this month is Stefan Ortega Moreno (32) from Manchester City, who has never been nominated for the DFB team before.

But number three is number three, Nagelsmann made that clear. When Baumann and Nübel made their debuts in October, Janis Blaswich (33) from RB Leipzig was there. There are “various options,” said Nagelsmann. Bernd Leno (32), who wanted to be ter Stegen’s number one representative, and Kevin Trapp (34) are apparently no longer there.

Younger goalkeepers should focus on the U21 European Championships

The fact that, apart from Nübel, who is still predicted to have a future at FC Bayern, no goalkeeper on this side of the 30-year limit currently plays a role would have been a dilemma for a national coach in other times. That doesn’t really look future-proof. Nagelsmann is only thinking until the 2026 World Cup in America anyway. Then either ter Stegen is back in top form – or the alternatives Nübel and Baumann are well-rehearsed.

In addition, no goalkeeper from the younger group is so important that their priorities would shift towards the A selection. “There’s definitely one or two of them there, but we also have a big U21 tournament in the summer and I don’t see the point in inviting U21 keepers so that they can then be with us for ten days and miss their team they should win the title in the summer,” said Nagelsmann. “I would find that strange if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.”