Passing of the Gloves: Who’s Next for Germany After Neuer?
One of the greats between the posts hangs the national gloves for the last time and leaves a spot that is hard to fill. As the Germans bid farewell to Manuel Neuer, everybody wonders who'll be the one to step up in his position. In this article, we'll have a look at Germany's potential goalkeepers for the foreseeable future.
Germany is known to be a football land packed with talented goalkeepers, but since his international debut in 2009 against UAE in a friendly game, Manuel Neuer has been the indispensable first-choice keeper of die Mannschaft for 17 years. From the early days of his career at his boyhood club Schalke 04, the German glove was already catching the attention of European giants and that got him a move to Bayern Munich in the 2011 summer. As the Bavarians' goalkeeper for 15 years, he built a decorated career full of silverware, including 2 Champions League trophies, and he was also one of the key figures of Germany's most recent World Cup-winning campaign. As expected from any goalkeeper, the German possessed very quick reflexes, good hand work and composure, but what made him stand out was his presence outside of the penalty box. He redefined the role of modern goalkeepers in the game play, who use their feet as effectively as their hands, and became an inspiring example of the "Sweeper Keepers".
However, as the years passed, the amount of minor or major injuries he suffered increased and became more frequent. As a result, the German started losing his prime performance and question marks began to form as well: “Who’ll take Neuer’s place, when the time comes?”. Neuer actually retired once already, after EURO 2024, but with former national team manager Julian Nagelsmann’s efforts, he came back for a final time, for his 5th World Cup campaign in 2026. After Germany’s not so shocking and yet disappointing exit in the Round of 32 against Paraguay, the German came back to national team retirement. And the rumours suggest that the 40-year old keeper might be hanging his gloves permanently at the end of the 2026/27 season. So, as German football steps into a new era with ex-Liverpool and BVB manager Jürgen Klopp, various candidates rise to become the nation’s new number 1.
Oliver Baumann
36-year old Oliver Baumann made his debut for Freiburg in 2009 and from the 2010/11 season on, he became the team’s starting goalkeeper and made 147 appearances for the Breisgau-Brazilians. Then in 2014, he signed for another Bundesliga side Hoffenheim, where he still serves today. From the day he began, Baumann has been the consistent first-choice goalkeeper for die Kreichgauer, with the club record of starting over 500 games and also became the captain in 2022. The 36-year old played for Germany’s youth national teams several times in different age categories, however he had to wait a long time for die Mannschaft call-up. Despite waiting on the Germany bench as a back-up goalkeeper for 4 years since his first call-up, the opportunity was finally given to him in 2024. Under Julian Nagelsmann, Baumann made the first of his 13 National Team appearances so far in Nations League against Netherlands and managed to keep a clean sheet as well. He’s considered one of the elite Bundesliga shot-stoppers and his most number of saves in the 2023/24 season is proof for that. In addition, he’s one of the last German keepers a penalty taker would like to stand against, as he currently has the second most penalty saves in the German top flight. However, from time to time he struggles to keep his head in the game and leads to highly prolific errors and misjudgments, most famously against Hamburg back in 2013.
Marc Andre Ter-Stegen
Ter-Stegen has also been around for a long while now, considering he made his professional debut only a year after Baumann. Mönchengladbach’s own rose up from the youth ranks to the first team in 2010 and made 108 appearances in 4 years as die Borussen’s first-choice keeper. His rising performance caught the attention of big clubs outside Bundesliga and that led him to Barcelona in 2014, who were searching for replacements for Culers’ long-serving keeper Victor Valdes. In his first season, the German exchanged starts with his Chilean colleague Claudio Bravo and was only featured in UCL games of the 2014/15 season’s treble winning team.
Two years later, with Bravo’s departure and the good use of the play time he was given in both domestic and continental competitions, he claimed first-choice keeper status. For 10 years and over 400 times, he stood between Culers’ posts, won countless trophies with them and stayed through the team's modern struggling periods. He was given the La Liga Goalkeeper and Player of the Awards in the 2022/23 season and also took the captaincy from Sergi Roberto in 2024. However, the captain's armband came with a serious fitness cost. His knee injuries were always common, but the patellar tendon rupture he suffered that season ruled him out for the longest time. This even forced Barca’s hand to look for options in goal, which included the retired Szczęsny, long-serving back-up Peña and last, the rival keeper Joan Garcia.
Due to his injury periods and Garcia’s impact performances, the captain fell from grace. So, the German was loaned to Girona in the last season to find more play time, but back and hamstring injuries only allowed him to have 2 games with the team being relegated from top flight at the end of the spell. Now, the German keeper tries his luck on loan once again at Ajax Amsterdam and already played more games than he could last season. Compared to Baumann, Ter-Stegen’s National Team career started way earlier in 2012, but he was left in the shadow of Manuel Neuer and couldn’t make as much impact as he did in club football. Ter-Stegen possesses a strong aerial reach and a similar tendency to Neuer in terms of leaving his box and using his feet, but he hasn’t been playing regularly in recent years and has a worrying injury record.
Alexander Nübel
Nübel is another travelling German keeper, who was once considered as Neuer’s heir. He made his professional debut at his boyhood club Paderborn and one season was enough for him to make a move to Schalke 04, where the Neuer comparisons would begin. In his first 3 years at Schalke, Nübel barely made it into the first team squad, only playing in 2 occasions and was mostly featured at the second team. But his breakthrough came in the 2018/19 season and became the first choice after Ralf Faehrmann. After captaining the Miners for a season, he switched to Bayern Munich on a free, around a similar age as Manuel Neuer did. But his Bayern run was spent as a bench warmer of his colleague, so he was loaned to AS Monaco for 2 years and then to Stuttgart for 3.
In the 5 years he spent as a loanee, Nübel found form and play time to reestablish himself as one of the top German shot stoppers. He won the German Cup during his time at Stuttgart and kept clean sheets on 14 occasions last season, matching his best league record of 11, which he previously achieved at Monaco and Stuttgart. In the same international break as Oliver Baumann, Nübel was also capped for the first time against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Nations League, in which Germany won with a brace from Deniz Undav. After his loan spell ended at Stuttgart, he has recently signed for Turkish Black Eagles Besiktas and made an instant impact on the club, who were once desperate for a quality keeper in command. Nübel started with 6 consecutive clean sheets for Besiktas, conceded only 5 goals in 10 games and is now considered one of the favourites of becoming Germany’s new number one. He shows his quality in positioning, handling and one-on-ones, he doesn’t shy out from leaving the box and presenting himself as a pass station, but his reactions at opponent crosses needs improvement and he struggles at penalties.
Jonas Urbig and Noah Atubolu
The nation in search of a goalkeeper may also find a long-term solution in youth talent, because despite their still young career, they can step up big time. Jonas Urbig isn’t only Neuer’s potential successor in the German National team, but also in Bayern Munich. After years of rising in the youth ranks of FC Köln, the young keeper could only make it to the reserve team at first, so he had to make his professional debut in a 6-month loan spell he served at 2.Bundesliga side Jahn Regensburg in 2023. After another productive loan season at Greuther Fürth in the 2023/24 season, keeping 12 clean sheets in 34 games, the chance at his boyhood club finally came, as he stepped up to Köln’s first team. However, bigger clubs were eyeing for a move and after 11 appearances for Köln at 2.
Bundesliga, the young German took an early promotion to the top flight as Bayern Munich’s backup goalkeeper. Urbig has been up for duty mostly in cup games and in Neuer’s injury periods, which was the reason for his Bundesliga debut in the 3-3 draw against RB Leipzig. The most notable strengths of the 23-year old are his very quick reflexes and composure against close-range efforts, he also possesses great aerial reach. However, he tends to let the ball rebound instead of catching it, so his questionable handling may put the defenders in a challenging position, if they lack concentration even for a small second.
Only a year older than Urbig, Noah Atubolu is another young German goalkeeping sensation, who has recently risen immensely. Similarly to Oliver Baumann, the Freiburg-born goalkeeper also started his youth career at the local club SC Freiburg and has spent most of his career at his boyhood club so far. He made his first-team debut in the 2022/23 German Cup Second Round against St. Pauli, but his true breakthrough came the next season. After Mark Flekken’s departure, Atubolu took over the first-choice goalkeeper role and kept the gloves until the beginning of the 2026/27 season.
In those 3 years as Breisgau-Brazilians’ goalkeeper, he showed great reliability between the posts and broke the club record for most consecutive minutes without conceding a goal with 609 minutes. He was also one of the key figures of Freiburg’s march into the Europa League Final in Istanbul last season by keeping 5 clean sheets and making a crucial penalty save against Braga in the Semi-Finals. Unlike Nübel, the 24-year old stands out as a “Penalty-Killer”, but much like his German colleague, he’s also very good with his feet and calm under chaos. He became the only goalkeeper in Bundesliga history to save 5 consecutive penalties during his time at Freiburg and in his current loan spell at Eintracht Frankfurt, he extended that record to 6 saves against Mainz 05. Despite this unique strength of his, Atubolu mostly doubts to come off his line and when he does, he struggles to choose the right time to intercept, which ends up leaving his goal a bit vulnerable behind.
Long story short, Germany is in need of a change between the post and there are several options who are considered to be up for the task. With the time for the international break ticking, we’re about to see who will be the new head coach Jürgen Klopp’s choices to replace a German goalkeeping legend.
Article written by Emre Albas © Emre Albas 2026
