{"id":495698,"date":"2025-10-13T08:40:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T08:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/495698\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T08:40:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T08:40:11","slug":"germany-captain-joshua-kimmich-plays-down-rumours-of-manuel-neuer-returning-to-national-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/495698\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany captain, Joshua Kimmich, plays down rumours of Manuel Neuer returning to national team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Manuel Neuer is enjoying one of his best seasons in recent memory. The 39-year-old shot-stopper has already racked up four clean sheets in his first six Bundesliga games. It\u2019s no surprise that with the FIFA World Cup around the corner rumours linking Neuer with a possible return to the German national team have started circulating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Despite the rumours picking up significant steam in the last few weeks, Germany captain and fellow Bayern Munich teammate, Joshua Kimmich, was quick to douse the gossip in cold water. Kimmich also threw in a sprinkle of praise for current number one, Oliver Baumann.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201dManu can lead any team. He\u2019s been the best goalkeeper in the world for 20 years. Ultimately, it was his decision to retire, and we all have to respect his decision,\u201d said Kimmich in an interview with Welt am Sonntag (as captured by <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/iMiaSanMia\/status\/1976909087091671132\">@iMiaSanMia<\/a>). \u201cOverall, we\u2019re very well equipped in the goalkeeping position; Oliver Baumann has been excellent in recent games.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It remains to be seen whether Neuer will return for one last World Cup, but at this point it seems unlikely. Considering the reportedly strained relationship between the goalkeeper and Julian Nagelsmann as well as Germany\u2019s depth in the position, it would likely take something special for Neuer to come out of retirement to claim back his spot in the national team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manuel Neuer is enjoying one of his best seasons in recent memory. The 39-year-old shot-stopper has already racked&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495699,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[6102,2000,299,3968,129072,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-495698","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-bayern-munich-alumni","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-general","12":"tag-german-national-team-and-international-soccer","13":"tag-germany"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115365965057554535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}