Skip to main content

Sweeper-keeper Neuer is the real thing

Germany’s goalkeeper Manuel Neuer established a new playing style at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

22.10.2014
© picture-alliance/dpa - Manuel Neuer

“I help where I can.” This is how Manuel Neuer summed up 
his performance. In June 2014, Germany played Algeria in the last sixteen of the FIFA World Cup. Germany won 2-1 – and the 28-year-old German goalkeeper played a major part in their victory. He reinterpreted his role and proved once again why he is considered one of the best keepers in the world. He often moved a long way off his line to clear balls for the defence. This gave Germany an extra field player with Neuer almost in the role of sweeper.

Football experts were impressed, and Neuer, who plays in the German Bundesliga for Bayern Munich, was dubbed a sweeper­-keeper. It was a good omen: after all, Germany had previously won the World Cup in 1974 and 1990 with a sweeper. Neuer also gave the German defence great support in the following games. He and his teammates won the World Cup for Germany, and the sensation was complete. “I’ve seldom seen a better sweeper, with the possible exception of Franz Becken­bauer,” said goalkeeper trainer Andreas Köpke. Neuer, who was born in the Ruhr District, is also highly praised for his excellent reflexes and his ability to place even long passes right at his teammates’ feet. German sports journalists voted him Germany’s Footballer of the Year for the second time in 2014. Neuer is even being 
immortalised off the football pitch now: with a wax figure at Madame Tussauds in Berlin.

www.dfb.de