Oliver Kahn says Ter Stegen should have been Germany’s first-choice goalkeeper

Oliver Kahn has backed Ter Stegen for the Germany starting goalkeeper’s role. The former goalkeeper believes Ter Stegen should have been first choice and has criticised the allocation of starts under new coach Jürgen Klopp. The comments come as Ter Stegen appears to have a long-awaited opportunity to establish himself: he is 34 and has been capped 45 times for Germany.

Across Germany’s four matches under Klopp, Ter Stegen played in goal only in the opener against the Netherlands, which ended 1-1. Alexander Nubel then started against Greece in a 0-1 defeat. Jan Urbig played the next two matches: a 2-0 win against Serbia and a 0-0 draw with Greece.

Kahn described the distribution of appearances as “rather unfortunate” and argued that Ter Stegen should have been the starter. He also said: “It’s a shame: if someone needed to play, I would gladly have given those minutes to the player Jürgen Klopp currently considers number one, Marc ter Stegen.” Kahn added that this would have made more sense to him.

The former goalkeeper also challenged the idea of rotating players to give them playing time. “I don’t think the national team is there to give anyone minutes,” he said. Klopp’s rotation in his first spell as Germany coach, meanwhile, appears to be encouraging broader competition among the internationals.

Kahn’s view comes against a particular backdrop for Ter Stegen. Manuel Neuer, who held the Germany goalkeeping role for a long time, ended his career with the national team at 40. Kahn himself played 86 matches for Germany. In his view, it should now be Ter Stegen’s turn.