Ter Stegen praises Urbig's development: "Learning better than next to Manu is very difficult"

Marc-André ter Stegen sees his young goalkeeper rival Jonas Urbig in an optimal development position at FC Bayern Munich alongside Manuel Neuer. “It is very difficult to learn better than next to Manu. Accordingly, he is in a great situation. “He doesn’t have the maximum pressure yet, but he can develop well,” said ter Stegen before his planned comeback in the goal of the German national soccer team in Amsterdam against the Netherlands.

The new national coach Jürgen Klopp has declared the 34-year-old ter Stegen his number one “for the moment”. Many people already see Urbig, who is eleven years younger than him, as the goalkeeper of the future - in Munich and in the DFB team.

“He's a great goalkeeper who hasn't yet fully established himself as one at Bayern. “Enforced isn’t the right word, because Manu has always been number one there,” said Ter Stegen, who couldn’t get past Neuer in the national team for over a decade.

The 40-year-old finally withdrew from the national team after the next World Cup flop in the summer. In Munich, the captain extended his contract again for what was probably his last season.

Urbig should then become the new number one for the record champions - a year before the 2028 European Championships. He is already getting regular assignments from coach Vincent Kompany. He was there as a training goalkeeper at the World Cup.

Klopp has nominated a total of five goalkeepers for his first four international matches this week and next and chose Ter Stegen instead of Oliver Baumann (36) as the experienced goalkeeper.

In addition to youngster Urbig, there are also Alexander Nübel (29) from Besiktas Istanbul, Finn Dahmen from Augsburg and Noah Atubolu from Eintracht Frankfurt. “These are really great goalkeepers that I see here,” said ter Stegen. Urbig, Dahmen and Atubolu are still waiting for their international debut. Urbig could celebrate this at home in Munich against Serbia next week.

Unlucky ter Stegen thinks “short-term” when it comes to goals

«I believe that we are all at a good level and want to make things as difficult as possible for the coach in the future. Everyone has their ambitions, everyone has their goals,” said ter Stegen. His declared goal is to finally be in the DFB goal at a major tournament at the 2028 European Championship.

However, the goalkeeper, who has been playing for Ajax Amsterdam since this season, may not think that far ahead after a lot of bad luck with injuries and a number of setbacks. “The most important thing is that I stay healthy. That I get back into rhythm, that I reach my maximum performance again. “Especially when you have a certain period of suffering behind you, you pay more attention to what is happening,” he said before his 45th international match in Amsterdam.