How Bayern Munich is grooming its successor to Manuel Neuer

The Bayern Munich goalpost has been manned by a modern legend of the game in Manuel Neuer. Although playing almost into his 40’s soon, a replacement is inevitable. The successor to fill such massive shoes has had the opportunity to train under him and further his game. 22-year-old Jonas Urbig has been Bayern’s bet to replace their legend in the twilight of his career.

Handpicked by Neuer

It is known that Neuer was involved in the transfer of Jonas Urbig from FC Köln and that was big factor in the succession plan. Neuer is famous for his reluctance to share time with any keepers at club or country level. Alexander Nübel and Marc-André ter Stegen have been the biggest casualties to the Bayern captain’s inflexibility in this matter.

However, with Urbig this has been an exception. In the current season, the 22-year-old has had four full games under his belt split equally between the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal. In his latest appearance for the Bavarians, Urbig played the full 90 minutes against Stuttgart logging an assist and a clean sheet.

A complimentary senior pair

The Bayern senior goalkeeping squad includes Manuel Neuer and Sven Ulreich. Both these keepers have served Bayern incredibly well over the years. While Manu is a pure sweeper keeper who is exceptional on the ball, Ulreich is more old school. Ulle shines in shot stopping and is a specialist in penalty shootouts. Ulreich’s heroics in goal secured the German Super Cup against Borussia Dortmund in 2017. However due to Neuer being the mainstay keeper, Ulle’s appearances have been strictly limited to only the windows when Manu was injured.

Jonas Urbig has the benefit of honing his skills from the experience of two seniors with different playstyles. Whether building from the back like he did vs Stuttgart or to excel in shot stopping, the 22-year-old has a great duo to learn from. In the game against Stuttgart, Urbig’s beautiful long pass created the first goal for Bayern. He looked super confident and in good understanding with his backline.

Following the game, he detailed on the influence of playing with the two senior keepers (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “That’s very important. Not only with Manu but also with Sven, who has incredible experience and is a class goalkeeper. We have a very good goalkeeping team, I’m happy to help the team,” said the understudy who will one day look to inherit the Bayern Munich number 1 jersey.