The man likely to start in goal for Barcelona against Juventus in the Champions League final hasn’t even made his league debut for the Catalans yet.
Marc-Andre ter Stegen, a 23-year-old German brought in this year from Borussia Monchengladbach, the club he had played for since he was four years old, has started for Barcelona 19 times, including seven cup ties and 12 Champions League matches.
He still hasn’t made his La Liga debut though. Claudio Bravo, a 32-year-old Chilean signed from Real Sociedad, has started every league game, but no cup games and no Champion’s League games.
Jordi Masip, the third goalkeeper, played one Cope del Rey match.
Why? Surely one must be better than the other.
Bravo is the captain of the Chilean national team. Ter Stegen backs up Manuel Neuer for the Germans.
This strategy appears to be working — Barcelona has allowed just 33 goals in 50 competitions this season, good for the best defense in Europe. Of those goals, ter Stegen has conceded 14 in 19 competitions and Bravo has conceded 19 in 37 competitions. Granted, in the Champions League ter Stegen was facing a higher level of competition than Bravo in La Liga.
Both keepers are worth the same amount of money, too. Barcelona paid 12 million Euros for each.
So what is Luis Enrique to do for the final? Should he start the older, wiser, more experienced Chilean who just won him La Liga or the brash, swashbuckling German who has gotten Barcelona to the Champions League final? Ter Stegen, most likely, because if Enrique starts Bravo in the Champions League final then he will lose all respect from ter Stegen forever.
Then again, Luis Enrique may not care what ter Stegen thinks, as the German was brought in by a coach, sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta, who is no longer employed by Barcelona. Luis may just go with the old hand, players’ feelings be damned, if he feels it gives him a better chance at the trophy.
It is, after all, all about the trophies.
