Who Will Be Germany's Next Goalkeeper After Neuer?

When Jürgen Klopp steps up on 17 September to announce his first Germany squad, one position will drown out all the others. The No. 1 shirt. The first goalkeeper of the post-Manuel Neuer era.

Julian Nagelsmann eased Germany into that transition and coaxed one last World Cup push out of Neuer. Now the armband, the aura, and the gloves are up for grabs.

Thomas Helmer, European champion in 1996 and long-time Bayern defender, doesn’t hesitate when asked who should be at the front of the queue.

“Looking at it right now: Nübel, who is playing sensationally in Istanbul and simply has match practice, is certainly a candidate,” he told Sport1.

Alexander Nübel has done exactly what every ambitious understudy is told to do but rarely manages: leave Bayern Munich, play, and dominate. At Besiktas he has rattled off six clean sheets in his first nine competitive games, a run that has pushed him straight into the national-team debate.

Helmer loves the form. He still doesn’t pretend the issue is settled.

He calls it a “big question” who will actually inherit Neuer’s throne. And it is. For years, the conversation was Neuer and then everyone else. Now there is no default answer.

Neuer briefly returned to reclaim his spot for the 2026 World Cup push, edging out Oliver Baumann to re-establish the old order. Then came the definitive decision: retirement, this time for good. The vacuum is real, and the candidates are circling.

Plenty of pundits have thrown another Bayern name into the mix: Jonas Urbig. The 21-year-old travelled to the World Cup as a training goalkeeper, working day in, day out with Neuer, Baumann and Nübel, but without a place in the official squad. For some, that trip was a glimpse of the future.

Helmer isn’t convinced.

“The question is how much playing time he will really get under Vincent Kompany,” he warned. One DFB-Pokal outing against Osnabrück, Helmer pointed out, simply cannot be the foundation for a national No. 1 role. “Just one cup game against Osnabrück for now – and I don’t mean that disrespectfully at all – certainly won’t be enough.”

At Bayern, the line is clear: Urbig will get his minutes behind the first-choice goalkeeper. Those minutes, though, will arrive in small doses while Neuer’s shadow still stretches across Säbener Straße. For Helmer, that is nowhere near the standard required to lead Germany from the back.

“In the goalkeeping position, you need someone who plays all the time,” he said. Not someone who dips in for the odd cup tie. Not someone learning the trade from the bench.

That belief pushes the spotlight back onto Nübel and any other keeper logging heavy, high-pressure minutes every week. Match rhythm, not potential, is the currency Klopp will be weighing.

And somewhere in the background, as the debate rages, another familiar name hovers on the edge of the conversation: Marc-André ter Stegen, long-time challenger, proven at the highest level, waiting for clarity from the DFB.

Klopp’s first squad won’t just reveal a list of names. It will reveal his answer to the most sensitive question in German football right now: who dares to follow Manuel Neuer?