The situation
Already in his thirties, Marc-André Ter Stegen (30-4-1992) has been flying again this season in which, beyond the three goals he conceded on Wednesday against Inter (he saved another four) , he has spent 624 minutes unbeaten in LaLiga , in which he has only conceded one goal. Surely, it was hard to wait for him anymore . Plagued by problems with his right knee, his last three years had been disappointing. There was no trace of the bossy and exuberant goalkeeper who arrived at Barca in 2014 and who, after two seasons as a substitute for Bravo in the League (but holder of the Champions League and Cup champions in 2015 and 2016), felt strongly to challenge Robert Fernández and Bartomeu : either Bravo or him. The Chilean was transferred to Manchester City and the German kept all the power in the goal, in which he swallowed Cillessen first ; and then Net . “I want to play everything,” he said on a tour of the United States in 2018. He did not leave even the crumbs, to the point that the Dutch and the Brazilian, who considered that the German played almost by decree, ended up abandoning each other. Ter Stegen’s performance began to drop alarmingly at the end of the 2018-19 season, with a particularly painful point at Anfield , where he was left immobile by Wijnaldum and Origi’s shots (4-0). Something was wrong. Specifically, it was his right knee, for which he was forced to stop at the beginning of that season. The matter got worse and ended in 2-8 in Lisbon , where it was transparent.
The details
After the ridicule against Bayern, he decided to stop and missed the start of the 2020-21 season. But the knee continued without reacting and Ter Stegen decided to have surgery. Although Koeman and Xavi have considered him essential, since Laporta’s arrival his status has changed. The president is determined, like Mateu Alemany, to lower his contract, renewed until June 2025 with deferred amounts in the style of De Jong. “This is not the time to talk about it now,” he said recently during the team break. Ter Stegen has returned to the Mannschaft after asking Flick to exempt him from the Nations League commitments in June to rest his knee.