Ter Stegen, one hundred days later

Marc-André Ter Stegen is back. This Sunday, just the day of the game against Getafe, it will be one hundred days since his last operation on the patellar tendon in his right knee, the second that they practiced him in less than a year, after the intervention to which he was subjected after 2-8 in Lisbon against Bayern.

The operation to which he was subjected by Dr. Cugat in August 2020 was not a success. The German's performance was dropping alarmingly at the end of last year. And he had an explanation. His knee was still not working. So after his best moment of the course, when Ocampos was saved by a penalty in the Cup semifinal against Sevilla, it faded away. In the last league games against Granada, Levante or Celta, his performances left much to be desired and he decided to have surgery. But this time he did not put himself in the hands of Cugat but went to Sweden to be intervened by Hakan Alfredson.

One hundred days later, something more than what was expected from the club, which has preferred to opt, like the goalkeeper, for patience, Ter Stegen is ready to go. It is only necessary to know if Koeman will decide to wait for the return of the break to place him in the team or, on the contrary, and taking into account that the first League game after the return is Sánchez Pizjuán, he will already give him the opportunity to play against the Getafe so that it goes making goal.

Ter Stegen begins his eighth season at Barça as a benchmark for the fans, who in a significant percentage ask for his entry into the team of captains. The acceptance of the German in the dressing room has never been so overwhelming, as he himself slipped in his farewell letter to Messi. But the new cycle, after the marches of sacred cows like Suárez or Messi, suggests that Ter Stegen will win even more gallons. Champion of the Champions as starting goalkeeper as soon as he arrives, one of the challenges for the German must be to erase images such as those of Rome, Liverpool, Lisbon … in which he was always in the photo. Being the goalkeeper with the fewest goals in LaLiga and recovering the club's prestige in Europe are two of his goals for the club. But above all, that the right knee responds.