His longtime friend and coach was unexpectedly fired by Bayern Munich.
That made star goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, 36, contemplate his future at the club.
– It was as if my heart was ripped out, he says in an interview with The Athletic.
Manuel Neuer is not easy now.
He broke his leg after the World Cup fiasco in Germany and missed the rest of the season. Things got worse when goalkeeper coach Tony Tabalovic, Neuer’s under-the-radar partner of nearly twelve years, was fired from Bayern Munich in January.
– I was already down so it was too heavy for me. I felt like my heart was being ripped out. “It was the most brutal thing I’ve faced in my career, and I’ve been through a lot,” Neuer told The Athletic.
– What happened now is on another level. He continued: Everyone in the goalkeeper group was devastated and people burst into tears.
“A huge disappointment
Bayern Munich did not mention on their website any reason for sacking Tabalovic. Noir says he felt the message came out of nowhere and that, according to him, it should have been solved in a different way.
– It’s a huge disappointment. It has to do with the human side and how a highly valued employee is treated. At Bayern, we want to be different, family, and then something like this happens that I’ve never seen before. It’s sad for everyone: for the club, for the ‘tapa’, for the staff, the goalkeepers, and for me, says Neuer.
In the interview, he was asked if the club’s sacking of Tabalović was a way to spoil Neuer.
– I started thinking about all sorts of ideas, even about my future at the club. But the people in Bavaria assured me that was not the case. I said I didn’t agree with the reasons given and I felt heard, Neuer says.