The admission comes from a goalkeeper who spent a decade as one of the game’s most reliable No. 1s at Barcelona, then watched almost all of it disappear behind a serial run of back, knee and hamstring problems.
“I can’t say that I haven’t had my doubts from time to time, especially after an injury, when one injury leads right into the next,” Ter Stegen said in an interview picked up on the eve of Germany’s Nations League opener.
“You start to doubt yourself and nothing feels right.”
The 34-year-old has been restricted to just 12 appearances across the past two seasons between Barcelona and a six-month loan at Girona. His most recent rehabilitation began in early July, and he now speaks like a player who has learned to weigh the small wins.
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“I’m glad that everything is really turning out just the way I imagined it would. I’m healthy right now, and I truly appreciate that.”
Ajax, a Barcelona lifer’s detour
Ter Stegen’s contract at the Camp Nou runs until 2028, but Barcelona sent him to Amsterdam on a season-long loan when it became clear he needed regular football to rebuild both fitness and status. In an earlier interview around his Ajax pre-season, he described the return to full training as a slow, honest climb.
“Every match will be a step forward for me. But I remember when I came back from my knee injury, I played straight away in the Nations League with Germany. There were doubts back then too, but I felt I played two good matches, showing that I could bounce back well even after a setback.”
He called the Johan Cruijff Arena “a beautiful stadium with a great atmosphere” and said he could not wait to play there.
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Klopp brings him back in from the cold
The interview lands as Jurgen Klopp begins his tenure as Germany head coach. The former Liverpool manager signed a four-year contract in July after Julian Nagelsmann resigned in the wake of Germany’s 2026 World Cup exit, and one of his first calls was to recall a goalkeeper who had not been in a Germany squad for 15 months.
Ter Stegen’s last cap was a 2-0 loss to France in June 2025. Now he is back in a group where Manuel Neuer’s international career is over and the No. 1 shirt is genuinely open.
Kick-off in Germany’s Nations League opener against the Netherlands is at 8:45pm local time on Thursday at the Johan Cruijff Arena, his loan club’s home stadium.
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