In his pre-match press conference on Friday, Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that club captain, Manuel Neuer, will return to Bayern Munich’s starting lineup this weekend.
The Bavarians are hosting Darmstadt, who gained promotion to the top-fight last season, and Neuer will make his first appearance in nearly 12 months for the club.
Neuer hasn’t played club football since before the 2022 FIFA World Cup, where he was a part of the Germany side that were knocked out in the group stages of that competition in Qatar last winter.
In the post-tournament break, Neuer severely fractured his leg in a freak skiing accident and has been in a bid to return to the team ever since.
The 37-year-old Gelsenkirchen-born goalkeeper will replace Sven Ulreich in the Bayern Munich goal, who has been keeping Israeli international, Daniel Peretz, on the substitutes bench.
Neuer began his youth and professional career with his hometown club, Schalke 04. He made 203 appearances for the club, across second and first team level, being a part of the side that reached the semi-finals of the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League, eventually losing to Manchester United.
That summer, he moved on to Bayern Munich and has made 489 appearances for the club. In that time, he has won 11 Bundesliga titles, five DFB-Pokal trophies, six DFL-Supercups, two UEFA Champions Leagues, two UEFA Super Cups and two FIFA Club World Cups, as well as a DFB-Pokal and DFL-Ligapokal with Schalke.
Internationally, he has won the FIFA World Cup and been capped by ‘Die Mannschaft’ 117 times, making his debut for his national side in 2009.
This is the first big decision of two involving Neuer for the next month or so as it remains unclear his position within the German national team setup.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen has been one of Barcelona’s key players for the last couple of years and been impressive for Germany. It is unknown as to whether Julian Nagelsmann will opt to persist with the impressive ter Stegen or return to Neuer, who was captain of his country before his untimely injury.
