Marc-André ter Stegen is just one game away from reaching 20th place among footballers with the most official games for Barça, a club where he is starting his tenth season. Aside from that, He is three official games away from tying Ramallets as third-best goalkeeper with the most games from Blaugrana (381). Valdés (535) is still a long way away, but Zubizarreta (410) is within reach this season. However, his experiences with the German team are not equally satisfactory.
His competition with Neuer prevented him from playing regularly in the team. The Bayern goalkeeper has occupied the German goal in recent years. Marc-André is 31 years old, Manuel is 37 And this difference has essentially caused the generational block that has prevented the Blaugrana from showing the same performance at Barça as they did at Germany.
Neuer was injured after a disastrous World Cup in which the Germans were eliminated in the group stage. Since her absence, Ter Stegen has taken on the responsibility, albeit at a very difficult time. The most recent example was the defeat (1:4) against Japan on Saturday in Wolfsburg. A defeat that cost Hansi Flick his job and will force the German association to look for a replacement.
A deep crisis
The sporting crisis has taken its toll on the bench, but it goes much deeper and suggests that if a team doesn’t raise its level in the coming months, it could have a very bad time at next summer’s European Championships, exactly , in German. What is worrying is the level of defense, with very few selectable players in the big teams in the Bundesliga. The same analysis can be extended to other disciplines. In this pressure pot, Marc-André ter Stegen must now accept his responsibility, who has waited for many years to become important in his national team but was not lucky with the moment.
