There’s no position in football as unforgiving as being goalkeeper.
Mistakes are punished like nowhere else.
but at other times…
Either way it’s definitely about much more than making saves.
The demands on keepers have risen dramatically in recent years.
But what strengths do keepers need in order to make it to the very top?
What makes a truly world class keeper in the modern game?
Germany always had world-class goalkeepers.
Manuel Neuer revolutionised the position years ago.
But who or what will follow him?
The German football association developed a Goalkeeper DNA.
In training camps, the most important building-blocks
are passed on to the next generation of shot-stoppers.
We discussed the goalkeeper DNA with those who are currently getting it implanted,
Kiara Beck, Wolfsburg and Germany under-20s keeper, born in 2004…
with Niklas Sauter, Freiburg and Germany under-20s keeper, born in 2003…
and with Jonas Nikisch, RB Leipzig and Germany under-19s keeper, born in 2004…
Like all others at this national team training camp, they aim to be professional players and much more.
Putting your career first, just like these players.
Whether it’s Thibault Courtois, Mike Maignan, Alisson, Ederson, Gianluigi Donnarumma,
Jan Oblak, Marc-André ter Stegen, AaronRamsdale or Manuel Neuer,
the current crop of keepers who boast the best goalkeeper DNA.
Former Bundesliga keeper and DFB goalkeeping coordinator Marc Ziegler
developed the so-called goalkeeper DNA together with experts:
head coaches, athletics specialists, even psychologists.
This is what the DNA looks like:
10 building blocks that are essential to goalkeeping at the highest level.
But what do the blocks all mean?
‘Online’ means that keepers are constantly scanning each passage of play
and then reading and analysing the big picture, the decisive moments in a game.
A further DNA building block is “athlete”.
Keepers need to be in peak physical condition
in order to meet the demands of top-level football.
„Position manager“ means never being distracted
and always adjusting one’s position to what is happening during the game.
Only this way can one react in the best possible way.
These individual building blocks can be studied and trained
at DFB goalkeeping camps for male and female players alike.
From under 15s to under 20s, the best four in each age category.
A team of 20 people made up of coaches, assistants,
match analysts, teachers, and doctors all take care of Germany’s budding keepers.
All with the aim of conveying the DNA building blocks to the Manuel Neuers of tomorrow.
What exactly young keepers work on and what the focus of such camps will be,
is always at least in part decided by the latest footballing trends.
That’s why the topic of box defence is in focus this time.
It’s about excluding dominance in the penalty area.
Not just on the goal-line but all over the 18-yard box.
The keepers need to participate in the game, not just react.
Be the 11th outfield player.
It goes hand in hand with „Desperation defender“.
The uncompromising will to defend the goal.
So which DNA building block is the toughest for up and coming keepers?
Whether one of these keepers will play on the biggest stage is difficult to predict.
A lot of luck goes into it too.
What Martinez achieved is the dream of any goalkeeper here.
But already they belong to the best in Germany in their age group.
So why does the DFB goalkeeper camp exist?
Why was a DNA developed for goalkeepers only?
Why are there no DNA camps for right-backs or wingers?
A look at the Bundesliga suffices to answer that.
Of the 18 starting keepers, 10 come from abroad, just 8 are Germans.
Cologne’s Marvin Schwäbe is the youngest at 27, not exactly a spring chicken.
Bundesliga keepers have an average age of 30,75.
The foreign keepers? 29.90.
The only one under 25 is Norwegian Christensen at Hertha.
10 years ago there were 11 German Bundesliga keepers, with an average age of 26.
That’s why Bernd Leno, now 31 and playing for Fulham in the Premier League,
already started for Bayer Leverkusen at age 19.
Just like Frankfurt’s Kevin Trapp. At 21, he was already Kaiserslautern’s number one.
Since 2017 he is also a Germany international.
Or Marc Andre ter Stegen, 31 and Barcelona’s starting keeper for many years now.
When he was 19, he was already established at Borussia Mönchengladbach
and has been part of the national team set-up since 2012.
Ter Stegen, Trapp and Leno - in the early 2010s they were still young keepers
but were part of a goalkeeping revolution.
But one player was more influential than any other. A few years earlier too.
Back in 2006, at the age of 20, he was Schalke’s number one.
Then at Bayern: Manuel Neuer.
As a sweeper-keeper, Manuel Neuer changed the game,
influencing an entire generation of goalkeepers.
Across the world, all top players in the position are now good with their feet, too.
And they do their jobs so well, that they don’t need to think about retirement.
Neuer was born in 1986 and it’s hard to get past him and others of his generation.
They’re blocking a lot of careers at the top.
But there’s another factor playing its part.
But it’s hard to get an opportunity at the highest level right now. So what to do?
So what attracts players to this position, in which it is so hard to make it to the top?