Marc-André Ter Stegen (04-30-1992) made one of the best stops of his career at the Allianz Arena. On the return leg of the 2014-15 Champions semi-final, Barça won 1-2 after winning 3-0 in the first leg. It was then that the German made a save to a Lewandowski shot that caught him on the wrong foot. The ball caught a kickback effect that propelled it into the goal. Ter Stegen, with a very powerful lower body, did magic and avoided the goal on the line. A stop that elevated him as one of the best in the world up to that moment. So much so, that despite the fact that Germany had been world champion with Neuer under the sticks, in Germany the debate about who should be the starter in the Mannschaft was fueled.
Against all odds, six years later, Neuer is still Germany’s number one goalkeeper. Ter Stegen’s progression took him to a very high level, in the aristocracy of the best goalkeepers in the world. But his level has dropped a lot in recent years, in which he has lost an angel and has been a strainer in Europe. No key stop in Rome, neither in Liverpool nor at 2-8. Or against PSG. In all the major defeats, and beyond his demotion, the Gladbach exporter has lacked that point of salvation that in another era had goalkeepers like Víctor Valdés.
The two knee operations have reduced the performance of the German, who is trying to regain good feelings with his inseparable José Ramón de la Fuente, the only member of the Barça staff to survive dismissals and who has been under the command of Tito, Roura, Martino, Luis Enrique, Valverde, Koeman, Setién; and now Xavi. All the new coaches have brought their staff, but ‘Dela’ has remained at the express wish of Ter Stegen.
Ter Steten still maintains prestige in the international concert. Transfermarkt values him at 55 million euros, although his appraisal reached 90 million euros two and a half seasons ago. He was no longer the best Ter Stegen, but that’s how the market works. If Barça wants to have any option of being in the knockout stages of the Champions League, they need the best version of the goalkeeper, who comes from a game full of doubts against Betis and in the first phase he was not lucky in the Bayern matches and in Lisbon, although he did have a decisive intervention at Benfica-Barça, when he saved Seferovic’s shot in the first instance, who later sent an action that seemed 0-1 safe. Perhaps Ter Stegen will find a good way to motivate himself by putting on the video of that stoppage in 2015, when he was one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Now it is far from that condition.