Germany goalkeeper and captain Manuel Neuer will replace Philipp Lahm as Bayern Munich’s skipper for next season, the Bundesliga champions’ chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has confirmed.
“Our number one is the number one [choice] – Manuel Neuer,” Rummenigge told Munich daily newspaper TZ. “He is an established professional, who will take the armband from Philipp Lahm. He has developed really well with the national team – not only on, but also off the pitch.”
World Cup-winner Neuer has been Germany’s goalkeeper since Bastian Schweinsteiger made his final international appearance last August. The 31-year-old Neuer steps in to skipper Bayern after Lahm retired from all football in May after 22 years with the Bavarian giants.
Neuer has sat out Bayern’s current tour of China and Singapore to recover from a foot surgery, but is expected to be back for the German giants when the new Bundesliga season kicks off on August 18. Bayern will be hunting a sixth straight German league title in 2017/18.
Having signed for Bayern in 2011, Neuer will become the fourth goalkeeper to captain the side after Oliver Kahn, Raimond Aumann and Sepp Maier. In Neuer’s absence, Thomas Mueller is captaining Bayern on their tour of China, where they lost 3-2 to Arsenal on penalties in a friendly after a 1-1 draw in Shanghai on Wednesday.
A header by Arsenal’s Nigeria striker Alex Iwobi deep into added time cancelled out Robert Lewandowski’s early penalty for Bayern before the Gunners won the spot-kick shoot-out.
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