Ulreich: “I did a lot right”

Goalkeeper Sven Ulreich sees his unexpected nomination for the German national team as confirmation of his move to Bayern Munich.

“I’ve always hoped for a bet when I’ve made my decision. The years have shown how important it is for Bavaria to have two strong goalkeepers. I did a lot right,” said the 30-year-old to the kicker. The step taken four years ago was considered very risky.

Because the current DFB captain Manuel Neuer was already the No. 1 in the Bavarians at that time, Ulreich had to read about himself during his transfer from VfB Stuttgart to the Isar that he was “retiring at the age of 26”. In fact, he couldn’t shake Neuer’s status, but because of various injuries to the top dog, he had 69 compulsory games and did his job well most of the time.

This, together with injuries to Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Bernd Leno, earned him an appeal for the European Championship qualifying matches on Saturday in Belarus and three days later in Mainz against Estonia (both 20:45/RTL). “That came as a surprise to me,” said Ulreich, who actually wanted to go on a family holiday to Austria on Monday. When packing however its mobile phone rang, Bundestorttrainer Andreas Köpke informed it about the nomination. “It’s an honor for me, I’m looking forward to my time there and I’ll step on it,” Ulreich said.

Ulreich is the third goalkeeper behind Neuer and Kevin Trapp (Eintracht Frankfurt) at the end of the season. The budget number 2 ter Stegen (FC Barcelona) is missing because of knee problems, Leno (FC Arsenal) is injured at the thumb.