The 40-year-old goalkeeper came out of international retirement and is now expected to start Germany's opener on June 14.

Manuel Neuer, the 40-year-old Bayern Munich goalkeeper who walked away from international football after Euro 2024, is back in training with the German national team. He arrived at the squad’s base camp in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and rejoined full team sessions just hours later.

The timing matters. Germany opens its 2026 World Cup campaign against Curaçao on June 14, and head coach Julian Nagelsmann has confirmed Neuer will start in goal, provided his fitness holds up.

A calf injury nearly derailed the comeback

Neuer’s path back to the national team hasn’t been smooth. A calf injury kept him out of Germany’s pre-tournament friendlies, including a commanding 4-0 win over Finland. For a player who retired from international duty roughly two years ago, missing warmup matches only added to the uncertainty around his availability.

Nagelsmann confirmed as much on or before June 7, making it clear that Neuer’s experience and leadership were non-negotiable elements of the squad’s World Cup strategy.

Two years away, then a U-turn

Neuer, born in March 1986, stepped away from the German national team after Euro 2024. He’d been Germany’s captain, their backbone in goal through a World Cup triumph in 2014, and the kind of player who redefined what a goalkeeper could be with the ball at his feet.

What Germany’s opener looks like now

Curaçao is not the kind of opponent that typically tests a top-tier goalkeeper to his limits. The Caribbean island nation, a FIFA member with a population of roughly 150,000, represents a manageable first assignment for Neuer’s return to competitive international football.

Germany’s base camp in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has become the staging ground for what could be one of the more compelling narratives of the 2026 World Cup. A veteran coming back from retirement, overcoming an injury scare, and stepping onto the pitch for a country he’d already said goodbye to.

Source: Crypto Briefing