{"id":3177,"date":"2026-04-09T06:12:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/3177\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T06:12:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T06:12:15","slug":"manuel-neuer-told-he-belongs-in-the-germany-squad-but-julian-nagelsmann-accused-of-blocking-bayern-legends-return-for-world-cup-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/3177\/","title":{"rendered":"Manuel Neuer told he ‘belongs’ in the Germany squad but Julian Nagelsmann accused of blocking Bayern legend’s return for World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following a gala performance in the Champions League<\/a> against Real Madrid, the calls for Neuer to make a dramatic U-turn on his international retirement are growing louder. The veteran keeper stepped away from the national after Euro 2024, which saw Germany exit on home soil following a quarter-final defeat to Spain. Despite this, former teammates and pundits believe the 40-year-old remains the undisputed benchmark and must be part of the squad for the upcoming tournament in North America.<\/p>\n

The debate over Neuer\u2019s international return ignited following Germany\u2019s sluggish start to the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. With Marc-Andre ter Stegen facing recurring injury setbacks and an uncertain future, calls for Neuer to come out of retirement reached a fever pitch. The narrative intensified when Neuer\u2019s agent, Thomas Kroth, told Frankfurter Rundschau that the goalkeeper “wouldn’t say no” if Nagelsmann faced a crisis in goal. Although Neuer quickly reaffirmed his retirement to Sky Germany, the speculation refused to die down.<\/p>\n

The controversy stepped up a notch this week following Neuer\u2019s man of the match performance against Real Madrid in the Champions League. Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen was effusive in his praise for the club captain, highlighting the disparity in goalkeeping quality on the night. \u201cWe had something in our game today that Real didn’t have: our X-factor, our 40-year-old, our world-class goalkeeper. Manuel, you were extraordinary today,\u201d Dreesen remarked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following a gala performance in the Champions League against Real Madrid, the calls for Neuer to make a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[144,3226,5,1159,3319,230,3227,284],"class_list":{"0":"post-3177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-bayern-munich","9":"tag-champions-league","10":"tag-germany","11":"tag-j-nagelsmann","12":"tag-m-neuer","13":"tag-real-madrid","14":"tag-real-madrid-vs-bayern-munich","15":"tag-world-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}