Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has retired from the German national team at the age of 38, the German Football Association (DFB) announced on Wednesday, ending a career in which he played 124 matches for the national team, winning the 2014 World Cup and finishing third in 2010.
“After long and intense discussions with my family and friends, I have decided to end my career with the Nationalmannschaft. Anyone who knows me knows that this was not an easy decision for me,” Neuer said in a video on Instagram.
Neuer had previously revealed before the European Cup, which his country hosted this summer and which he was eliminated from in the quarter-finals after losing 2-1 to Spain after extra time, that he would decide his future with the national team after the continental finals, which was his eighth major participation with his country.
The defeat to Spain on July 5 in Stuttgart was Neuer’s last appearance for the national team, with which he made his debut on June 2, 2009 in a friendly against the United Arab Emirates, which the Germans won 7-2. Neuer is fifth on the list of the most appearances for the German national team with 124 matches, 26 behind the record holder Lothar Matthäus.
Unlike his many titles with Bayern, with whom he won the local league 11 times in a row between 2013 and 2023, the local cup five times, and each of the Champions League, the Club World Cup, and the European Super Cup twice, the 2014 World Cup title in Brazil remains Neuer’s only title with the national team.
