Marc-André ter Stegen made plenty of headlines this summer. Now coach Hansi Flick has spoken out again on the matter and admitted to making a mistake.
There were repeated rumors over the summer that FC Barcelona wanted to get rid of Marc-André ter Stegen, who is on a high salary. After his back surgery, the German national goalkeeper initially resisted the report on his medical condition being forwarded to the Spanish soccer league’s medical committee.
The Catalans then initiated disciplinary proceedings and removed the 33-year-old as team captain. Ter Stegen later agreed, and the league classified his injury as a long-term absence. The disciplinary proceedings were dropped, the keeper was reinstated as captain, and the waves between the player and the club were smoothed over.
Coach Hansi Flick has now admitted that not everything went smoothly with ter Stegen in the summer. “Whether everything always went so well in terms of communication… I think there is a lot of room for improvement. On my part, too. But it’s important to me that Marc and the club have come closer together,“ said the 60-year-old in a video message at the Sport Bild Awards in Hamburg.
”He really gets all the support from each and every one of us.”
The German coach recently spoke out in favor of injured Barca captain ter Stegen staying with the top Spanish club. “For me, the important thing now is for Marc to come back. He is a top goalkeeper and he really has the full support of all of us so that he can play at his level again,” said the former German national coach.
Ter Stegen will now be out for the next few months due to injury. It will of course be exciting to see how FC Barcelona deals with its captain when he is fit to play again…
