Manuel Neuer retired from the German national team at the age of 38. Considered one of the best goalkeepers in history for a multitude of reasons, he is also considered one of the best goalkeepers in history for his personality and his ability to transcend the concepts of his position at the time he played.
After it was forbidden in 1992 for goalkeepers to pick up the ball with their hands after a pass from a team-mate, goalkeepers entered another dimension. Before that rule, there were goalkeepers in South America with the courage and eccentricity to come out of their box, dribble and be part of the game, but in Europe it was much less common.
One of Neuer’s main legacies is that he has distanced himself from all the other great goalkeepers around him at the same time, the only one to have left the goal to help his defence with or without the ball. Ten years ago, Manuel Neuer gave an unprecedented performance at a World Cup, becoming a sweeper and a playmaker outside the box.
Both in terms of the heat map and his pass map, Neuer took a step forward in terms of the role of goalkeepers at that time, and even now. His personality and talent for leaving his goal empty and being convinced that he could solve any problem at the back of the defence ensured that Germany always had a defensive advantage behind the centre-backs. In that World Cup, Neuer connected 29% of his passes outside the box, as if he were just another defender. He always played out of his own goal to cut out long passes and filtered passes behind the back of the defence. Germany became world champions and Neuer was awarded third place in the FIFA Golden Ball.
Throughout his career, Neuer has always been a goalkeeper completely ahead of his time. No other great goalkeeper of his generation used both his feet and the way he defended outside the box. Since Neuer came to the elite, the game has advanced enormously in goalkeeping. The data is clear: in 2007, taking into account the five major European leagues, the goalkeeper was responsible for 33% of the passes made. In 2023, 63%. In 2010, on the other hand, the average distance of the passes made by a goalkeeper was 53 metres. Last season it was 35.
The average passing distance, long passes and total passes by goalkeepers have undergone major changes since 2014. The game has evolved in all five major leagues to the point where the goalkeeper is now an asset in all types of game situations in the face of opposition pressure.
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