Marc-Andre ter Stegen says being named as Jurgen Klopp’s first-choice goalkeeper for Germany was extra special, following his well-documented injury issues. 

Germany will face the Netherlands in their first match under Klopp on Thursday, in the Nations League, with further games against Greece (home and away) and Serbia to come during this international break.

And, with Manuel Neuer retiring from international football in the aftermath of Germany’s shock round-of-32 World Cup defeat to Paraguay, the former Liverpool boss had to name a new number one.

Despite calling up Besiktas’ Alexander Nubel, Bayern Munich’s Jonas Urbig, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Noah Atubolu and Augsburg’s Finn Dahmen, he has gone with the experience of Ter Stegen.

The most recent of Ter Stegen’s 44 caps came against France in the previous edition of the Nations League in June 2025, with injuries restricting his gametime in recent years.

He only made 10 appearances across all competitions combined in 2024-25 and 2025-26, for parent club Barcelona and Girona, who he joined on loan for the second half of last season.

But, after starting eight straight games for his latest loan club, Ajax, Ter Stegen is excited to be back on the international stage.

“It’s always something special for me, to be here again now,” he told Sky Sport DE. “Especially if you had a time when things didn’t go the way you imagined, when your body wasn’t by your side, then of course, you appreciate it all the more. 

“I believe that I have worked a lot to make this happen again. I’m also looking forward to meeting many new faces, some old friends who are here, and just to start again and give our best for the team.

“There’s a smile on my face. I’m just happy to be 100% back, to be able to be with the national team and hopefully play successful football. That is the wish of all of us.”

Klopp takes charge of his country after overseeing 674 games in the Bundesliga and the Premier League, across wildly successful spells with Mainz, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool. That is more games in Europe’s top five leagues than any previous Germany head coach had tallied before taking the job.

Ter Stegen said of Klopp: “He’s one of one, as you know, with the joy he conveys and his interest in football, the enthusiasm he has for his own football. 

“I don’t think you need to say anything. I think everyone knows him and everyone knows how much he lives and feels football.”

Klopp is one of only three bosses – alongside Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti – to have won the Bundesliga and Premier League titles, and he became famed for his “heavy metal” style of play with both Dortmund and Liverpool.

But Ter Stegen knows adopting that way of playing will be a learning curve for Germany, adding: “There are issues he would like to tackle, because he has his way of seeing football and understanding football. We have to try to internalise that as quickly as possible. 

“For the time being, there are smaller levers that can and must be pulled, to then get into his philosophy. We want to play great football from the start, to defend not through individual actions, but really through the collective. 

“We have very few training sessions to talk a lot about gameplan and so on, so we will keep it relatively simple now. We have to be attentive and implement that as quickly as possible.”