So it’s official – Bastian Schweinsteiger will be joining Manchester United. The 30-year-old will leave Bayern Munich this summer to become the first ever German player in United’s history to play for the first team, and he will bring some much needed experience to the United midfield.
Although Schweinsteiger will become the first German player to don the United shirt in a competi-tive game, he isn’t the first German to be signed by the Reds. Two others have come before him – and both were tipped for big things at Old Trafford, but they failed to make the grade and Schwein-steiger will be hoping that he will have better fortunes than those two.
Markus Neumayr (2003-06)
Neumayr became the first German to sign for Manchester United when at the age of 17, he made the move from Eintracht Frankfurt to Old Trafford. He was first discovered by a United scout play-ing for the German under-16 side and after a successful trial period, he was offered a professional contract by United.
Playing mostly on the right hand side of midfield, as well as centrally at times, Neumayr was la-belled the “new Beckham”, due to their similar looks and style of play. However, his first season at United was derailed by a collarbone injury, which somewhat stunted his development and ruled him out for six months.
After his recovery, he took his place in a very talented reserve side, alongside the likes of Jonny Evans, Gerard Pique and Giuseppe Rossi. While those players eventually broke through to the first team and had successful careers, Neumayr never really got a chance in the first team, despite be-ing one of the more talented players in the side. The closest he got to a first team opportunity was when United were experiencing an injury crisis in midfield during the 2005/06 season.
Neumayr was called into the squad for a Premier League game against West Ham in March 2006, but unfortunately he did not make the bench for the game. However, he was making strides in the reserves. With David Fox departing for Blackpool, Neumayr was given the captaincy of the reserve side, and many United fans felt that he would eventually get his chance.
However, at the end of the season, Neumayr asked to be released by United, after much discus-sion with Sir Alex Ferguson. The manager had told him that with Cristiano Ronaldo, Darren Fletcher and Chris Eagles ahead of him in the pecking order, his chances of getting a first team opportunity would be slim. With no guarantees of first team football, Neumayr felt that he would be better off finding a new club.
Since his time at Old Trafford, Neumayr has had something of a journeyman career, with stints back home in Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. Currently, he plays for Liechtenstein side FC Vaduz, who play in Switzerland’s top flight and is enjoying his longest stint at any football club bar United. Now 29, he was excellent for Vaduz in the previous season, scoring five goals and assisting eight as they narrowly avoided relegation.
Neumayr’s career is a case of what might have been. He has gone on record saying that he might have made a mistake in leaving United so early in his career, and he had a tough time after leaving the Reds because people expected so much of him at his new clubs. With a bit of patience, Neu-mayr may been given a chance in the first team, given United’s problems in the centre of midfield.
Ron-Robert Zieler (2005-10)
Zieler’s five years at Old Trafford were pretty average, but since leaving Manchester he has en-joyed a pretty impressive career, leaving many United fans to think: could he ultimately have re-placed Edwin van der Sar once he retired?
Zieler moved to United as a 16-year old from hometown club 1.FC Köln, after impressing United scouts with his performances for Germany’s youth teams. In his first season at the club, Zieler was number one between the sticks, making 22 appearances, including four in the FA Youth Cup.
The following season, Zieler shared under-18 goalkeeping duties with Ben Amos, and also made his debut for the reserves in a 3-0 defeat to Sheffield United. But it was in the 2007-08 season that Zieler started to make his mark in the reserves, making 11 appearances as he and Tom Heaton shared goalkeeping duties. He was given a squad number at the start of the 2008-09 season, and things were starting to look up for Zieler, as he was on the bench for United’s 3-1 victory over Mid-dlesbrough in the League Cup.
However, things were about to take a turn for the worse, as Zieler was sent out on loan to North-ampton Town. In a three-month loan spell, he was unable to break into Stuart Gray’s side, and only made two appearances: in a 2-0 defeat to Walsall in February and in a 1-1 draw to Brighton and Hove Albion in the same month.
When he returned, Zieler retained his spot as the first choice keeper in the reserves, but that would come to an end when he broke his arm in a game against Newcastle United. He would spend eight months out of the game, and on his return, he found himself being usurped by Ben Amos in the pecking order, and spent his final season at Old Trafford mostly warming the bench.
Zieler was released by United at the end of the 2009-10 season, but Sir Alex Ferguson helped find him his next club – Hannover 96. As Sir Alex himself recounts: “We helped Ron-Robert orchestrate his move to Hannover. We had a scout over there at the time and I gave him a call. He then came across, spoke to Ron and got the Hannover coach across to Manchester to watch him train. They were happy to take him and we were delighted to organise that move for him.”
And it is at Hannover where Zieler has blossomed into one of best keepers in the Bundesliga. Start-ing out in the second team, his consistent performances there earned him a debut against Eintracht Frankfurt in January 2011, where he kept a clean sheet in a 3-0 victory. Since that game, he has remained Hannover’s first-choice keeper and his performances didn’t go unnoticed by German na-tional team manager Joachim Löw.
Having been capped at almost every age-group level for his country, Zieler was handed his senior national team debut by Löw in a friendly against Ukraine. The game was a pulsating one, ending in a 3-3 draw and although Zieler conceded all three goals in the first seventeen minutes, none of the goals were his fault and he made some good saves in the second half to keep the score down.
Zieler has gone on to make six caps for Die Mannschaft, and even has a World Cup medal in his cabinet – he was part of the squad that won the World Cup in Brazil last year, travelling as the third choice keeper in the side behind Manuel Neuer and Roman Weidenfeller. Not bad for a man that had some misfortune and as a result wasn’t really given a chance at United.
