Germany coach reaffirms Barcelona star’s starting position in national team despite injury – ‘He’s our starting keeper’ | OneFootball

It has been six months since Marc-Andre ter Stegen picked up an injury that forced Barcelona to look elsewhere but also bring Wojciech Szczesny back from retirement.

he Szczesny decision has worked out remarkably well for the club, with the Pole emerging as one of the top-performing goalkeepers in Europe since the turn of the year. He is yet to even lose a single game as a Barça player.

However, the prospect of ter Stegen returning to action sooner rather than later is always lingering on the back of Barcelona’s head.

Nagelsmann re-affirms ter Stegen’s role at Germany

While the battle between ter Stegen and Szczesny will be a big discussion point once the German returns to full fitness, Germany national team is pretty clear about where they stand with ter Stegen.

Speaking in a recent press conference, Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann has reaffirmed that once fully fit, ter Stegen will return as Germany’s undisputed number one.

Ter Stegen is recovering well and could be back soon (Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images)

“If Ter Stegen is fit, he’s our starting goalkeeper. If he’s not fit, the battle for a starting spot will be open to all goalkeepers,” he said (h/t Florian Plettenberg).

Nagelsmann’s statement clearly suggests that Germany considers ter Stegen as the undisputed first-choice goalkeeper, despite the presence of many talented goalkeepers in the country.

The German team is currently playing with Oliver Baumann, Stefan Ortega and Alexander Nubel as their three goalkeepers, but this could change once ter Stegen comes back.

Speaking of the Barcelona star, the goalkeeper has been recovering well and is hopeful of returning to action before the end of the season.

However, whether or not he will directly get back into Barcelona’s first team plans up upon returning to full fitness remains to be seen.