Football Player's Biography 7: Manuel Neuer

Full name	Manuel Neuer
Date of birth	27 March 1986 (1986-03-27) (age 24)
Place of birth	Gelsenkirchen, West Germany
Height	1.94 m (6 ft 4¹⁄₂ in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper

Manuel Neuer (German pronunciation: [ˈmaːnu̯ɛl ˈnɔʏ.ɐ]; born 27 March 1986 in Gelsenkirchen) is a German footballer and the current goalkeeper and captain of Schalke 04. Neuer's hero and idol as a child was fellow German and former Schalke goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.

Club career

Schalke 04

Neuer signed professional terms in 2005 after progressing through every age group at his hometown club. He made his Bundesliga debut when he came on to substitute the injured Frank Rost on match day 2 of the 2006–07 season. The 20-year-old eventually won the starting position when Rost was surprisingly dropped for the crunch clash against Bayern Munich. He did not disappoint and managed to secure a 2–2 draw against the defending champions. Despite his young age, he was widely tipped to be a potential successor to his former idol Jens Lehmann in the future for the German national team.^[2]
On 5 March 2008, in the first knockout round of the UEFA Champions League, Neuer performed fantastically against FC Porto where he almost single-handedly kept Schalke in the game with some brilliant saves and forced the game into penalties. He later saved penalties from Bruno Alves and Lisandro Lopez to help Schalke advance to the quarter finals. For his heroics, he was shortlisted for the 2007–08 UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year award of which he was the youngest as well as the only Bundesliga goalkeeper on the list.^[3] He was one of only three Bundesliga players to play every minute in the 2007–08 season.

The 2008–09 was somewhat disappointing as Schalke finished eighth in the league table and missed out on a Europe League spot. However, his good showing at the 2009 U-21 European Championships sparked interest from Bayern Munich, with Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge declaring interest in signing the young goalkeeper. Schalke's new manager Felix Magath, however, insisted that Neuer "will play for Schalke next season".^[4] In November, he was the only German goalkeeper in the list of five nominated goalkeepers for the UEFA Team of the Year.^[5]

International career

After progressing through the youth teams, Neuer made his U-21 debut on 15 August 2006 against the Netherlands. He won the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship with the Germany national under-21 football team in Sweden and kept a clean sheet in the final against England.^[6]
Neuer was called-up on 19 May 2009 to the senior Germany squad for a tour of Asia.^[7] He made his debut on this tour in a match against United Arab Emirates on 2 June.^[8] He played in the November friendly against the Ivory Coast that ended 2–2. Although he took responsibility for the first goal conceded, manager Joachim Löw refused to blame him and instead commended him for doing his best.^[9]
The death of keeper Robert Enke in November 2009 saw him elevated as the second choice goalkeeper under René Adler. However, Adler suffered a serious rib injury which ruled out of the World Cup. Neuer was then called to become Germany's first choice goalkeeper ahead of Tim Wiese and Hans-Jörg Butt for the upcoming tournament.^[10]
Neuer was selected as Germany's number one goalkeeper for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.^[11] During the group stages, he only conceded one goal against Serbia. He provided the assist for Klose's first goal against England, winning 4–1. He played in all of Germany's World Cup matches apart from the third-place play-off against Uruguay, when reserve goalkeeper Hans-Jörg Butt was selected.^[12]