National football team
“Dream” and “Coronation”: Nübel takes the lead in the placeholder duel
Warm-up for the international debut: goalkeeper Alexander Nübel. photo
© Daniel Löb/dpa
Germany needs a new number 1 – at least temporarily. After the departure of record goalkeeper Neuer and the serious injury to Ter Stegen, Nagelsmann suddenly has a new team building site.
When Alexander Nübel received the good news of his international debut from national coach Julian Nagelsmann and goalkeeping coach Andreas Kronenberg, the 28-year-old immediately informed his proud parents. But his 92-year-old grandmother can also be happy, as she is not entirely uninvolved in the fact that the goalkeeper of VfB Stuttgart on Friday (8.45 p.m./RTL) in the national team’s Nations League game against Bosnia-Herzegovina is the current highlight of a very rocky one can experience a football career.
Nübel reported “pure anticipation” in the RTL interview. “A dream” comes true for him. The once 17-time U21 national goalkeeper also speaks of “a reward” and “a coronation”. And what does grandma have to do with it? She once “played a lot of football in the garden” with little Alex, as the now 1.93 meter tall grandson reveals in a DFB video: “That was really cool.”
From grandma’s garden to the small stadium in Zenica
From grandma’s garden, Nübel has now made it to his biggest game as a goalkeeper in the small Belino Polje stadium in Zenica, which only holds 13,000 spectators. After Marc-André ter Stegen‘s serious injury, he was able to prove himself as a test person for the DFB goal and present himself in the placeholder duel with Oliver Baumann. The Hoffenheimer, who is six years older, will make his international debut on Monday in Munich against the Netherlands.
Actually the case was clear. Germany’s record goalkeeper Manuel Neuer was to be officially farewelled as a national player in “his” Allianz Arena before kick-off (together with his world champion colleagues Thomas Müller and Toni Kroos as well as European Championship captain Ilkay Gündogan). And Neuer’s crown prince ter Stegen, who was crowned for years, would then have come in as number one.
Ter Stegen remains Nagelsmann’s World Cup goalkeeper (for now).
As is well known, things turned out differently. Ter Stegen recently tore the patellar tendon in his knee while playing for FC Barcelona. Surgery, months of rehab, no more games this season. Nagelsmann responded with a commitment to ter Stegen: “Marc has all the time from us that he needs to get well again. He is our number one – and he will stay that way!” It would still be enough for the 2026 World Cup if Ter Stegen came back a year earlier.
The national coach deliberately only called for a fight for the interim number one in the DFB goal. It’s called Baumann versus Nübel. As the DFB announced, both are allowed to wear the number 1 on the goalkeeper jersey on their debuts. The topic is sensitive.
Despite Nagelsmann’s commitment to Ter Stegen, the national coach’s aim in the eight international matches until the number one’s planned comeback is to determine which of the two placeholders is capable of being a suitable World Cup goalkeeper.
Nübel expressed sympathy for the unlucky Ter Stegen. “He waited a long time for the position behind Manu. Actually his time would have come now with a view to the World Cup,” remarked the goal debutant. “Actually” is the operative word. Nübel has never lacked self-confidence. “Sure, if I get the chance, I want to show myself and present myself in the best way,” said Nübel. He sees himself as a “challenger”.
Will Nübel be Neuer’s double successor?
Suddenly it could be that Nübel becomes Neuer’s double successor. The former Schalke player Nübel has been under contract with FC Bayern Munich since 2020. It was last extended until 2029. Because there was no getting around Captain Neuer, Nübel was loaned to AS Monaco for only two years. And for a year now he has been on loan at VfB Stuttgart, with whom he shot up to the Champions League as runner-up.
“The cornerstone is always the performance in the club, that’s where it counts,” says Nübel: “The icing on the cake is the games with the national team.” At the home European Championships in the summer, he was the fourth goalkeeper in the provisional European Championship squad. In the end, Nagelsmann decided to add one more field player and left Nübel out of the final tournament squad.
“There are always obstacles in a career,” says Nübel. However, if Neuer ends his career next summer at the age of 39, FC Bayern could bring him back from Stuttgart a year before the agreed end of the loan. Nübel could then go into the World Cup season as number one of the most important German club. But that is a thing of the future.
