Ter Stegen knocks on the door

BarcelonaMarc-André ter Stegen will return to training with the group next week. As ARA has confirmed, the German goalkeeper's recovery plan involves starting the same training sessions as his teammates next Monday, December 1st. This Saturday, November 29th, will mark just four months since his surgery. The back surgery at the end of July was led by French doctor Amélie Léglise, the same doctor who treated him for the same lumbar problems in 2023. The medical report submitted to La Liga detailed that he would be out for four months, which is the time that has now passed. This prognosis allowed Barça to register Joan Garcia even though they didn't have enough salary cap space available: they took advantage of a significant portion of the space freed up by the Barça captain's registration. The goalkeeper from Sallent is registered for the entire season, sources at the Aristides Maillol offices insist. However, his registration will have to be finalized next summer.

Ter Stegen has already begun training on his own, taking on workloads equal to or greater than those he achieved when training normally, before his injury. The plan is for him to initially rejoin the rest of the group for partial training sessions—participating in activation exercises—and gradually complete the full sessions. According to sources consulted by this newspaper, he feels good and is fully recovered from his back problems. In two weeks, he could be training normally and be cleared to return, barring any setbacks—not in the form of a back-related relapse, but rather an injury associated with inactivity. Training alone and performing strength exercises—stopping, jumping, moving—is not the same as replicating, for example, match situations (or short matches) in training.

Therefore, if all goes well, the Mönchengladbach goalkeeper, who has a contract with the club until 2028, will be able to compete head-to-head with Joan Garcia and Wojciech Szczęsny from mid-December onwards, a month packed with important matches in La Liga, the Champions League, and the Copa del Rey.

Assuming that Joan Garcia, the club's long-term goalkeeper, will continue to be the starting goalkeeper in La Liga and the Champions League, this first round of the Copa del Rey could offer a glimpse into Hansi Flick's management of Ter Stegen. The same will apply to the Spanish Super Cup, played in Saudi Arabia in early January, when the transfer window is already open. For both competitions, Ter Stegen will be ready to compete. If he gets playing time, he'll have a reason to stay at the club. On the other hand, if he remains on the bench, it will be even clearer to him that if he wants to play, he'll have to leave.

The German goalkeeper wants to be his country's starting goalkeeper at the World Cup, which takes place this summer in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. To achieve this, he needs to accumulate quality playing time, and that has been difficult at Barça since the arrival of Joan Garcia. For now, he has no intention of accepting the free transfer that Barça was prepared to offer him last summer. With a salary between 10 and 15 million euros gross per season, if the Catalan club wants to terminate his contract, they will have to pay him the corresponding wages for this season and the next two.

The difficulty of finding quality minutes

This makes a loan move the most viable option, which would only postpone the problem until summer, when Joan Garcia will have to be re-registered. On the one hand, Ter Stegen wants to accumulate quality playing time and do so with a team that competes in the Champions League to maintain his top level. On the other hand, the club would like to save part of his salary to be able to make a winter signing. The German has received informal interest from Turkish side Besiktas and Manchester United, two teams without a clear starting goalkeeper, but neither of these clubs plays in the Champions League. Saudi Arabia is also a market that has shown interest in the Barcelona goalkeeper, but it's a destination that, for the moment, doesn't appeal to him from a sporting perspective.

The giants of Europe have their goalkeeping positions, in theory, covered. In the Premier League, City has Donnarumma and Trafford; Liverpool has Becker, who will soon be fully recovered from injury, and Mamardashvili. David Raya at Arsenal and Robert Sanchez at Chelsea are undisputed starters. Pope is the starter at Newcastle, but his place is being questioned. In Italy, Milinkovic-Savic is in goal for Napoli due to Meret's injury; Inter Milan has the veteran Sommer, and at Atalanta, Carnesecchi plays every minute. There are more doubts surrounding Juventus' goal: Perin has been filling in for them in recent matches, while Di Gregorio started the season as the starter. In Germany, Neuer is the undisputed starter at Bayern Munich, and rumors have increased that he could return to the national team after leaving it following Euro 2024. In any case, the last starter in goal for Germany was the veteran Oliver Baumann of Hoffenheim, seemingly an easy challenge for Ter Stegen, who is currently the underdog.