Do we like them?

Do we like Manuel Neuer?

Our score: 8 out of 10. Wore the rainbow armband at Euro 2020, gave to charity, and has a clean record; one badly judged 2020 singalong stops it going higher.

Neuer is the goalkeeper who changed how the position gets played: a sweeper-keeper who grew up in Gelsenkirchen, came through Schalke, then moved to Bayern Munich in 2011. He captained Germany and won the 2014 World Cup with them. His 2026 comeback, at 40, kept him in the headlines.

The one real stoush on his record is sporting. In 2023 he gave an interview criticising Bayern over how the club sacked his goalkeeping coach, and the club was reported to be weighing a hefty fine. Coverage of that fine was reports of a plan, not a confirmed penalty, so treat the figure with care.

On the harm test, his own acts lean the right way. At Euro 2020 he wore a rainbow captain's armband, UEFA looked into it and then dropped the matter, finding he was “promoting a good cause”. At the 2022 World Cup he agreed to wear the OneLove armband, which FIFA's threat of sanctions then stopped.

The mark against him is July 2020, when he was filmed at a Croatian beach bar singing along to a song by Marko Perković, known as Thompson, whom AFP calls a controversial nationalist. His manager told Bild he doesn't speak Croatian, and a teammate rushed to his defence. No clear apology turned up, and nothing since suggests he shares that politics, so it's an asterisk, not a fail.

The good stuff is real. He fronted the German squad's 2020 pledge of about €2.5 million to fight the virus, and the squad's €1 million donation to SOS Children's Villages in Nepal ahead of the 2022 World Cup. He also has a foundation for disadvantaged young people and sells off kit for charity. Nothing on the record shows him pushing harm against women, migrants or the planet.