About 15 minutes before kickoff on Sunday, Marc-Andre ter Stegen laughed with his teammate Niklas Sule as he made his way onto the field at Luzhniki Stadium. Ter Stegen is one of the best goalkeepers in the world and the starter for FC Barcelona. He has been in good form, too; this past season, he recorded the second-most shutouts in all of the top European leagues.
But here, as Germany faced Mexico in a World Cup group stage game, ter Stegen was a substitute, a reserve ambling out to the bench ahead of the formal walk-on for the starters. It was a strange sight, and — particularly after Mexico stunned the defending champions 1-0 — it shined a spotlight on a question that has hung over all sports, including soccer, for years.
Should an injured player keep his job?
Let’s review: Manuel Neuer has been Germany’s starting goalkeeper since 2010. He is also an incredible talent, a superstar, a rock for Germany’s top team, Bayern Munich, and he has served as the captain of the German national team since 2016. He is an all-timer. But he has played in exactly zero meaningful games in the past eight months as a result of a lingering foot injury.
After spending nearly all of this past club season rehabbing and watching ter Stegen excel, Neuer played his first match for Germany since last September just three weeks ago, in a warm-up exhibition. He was then promptly handed back his starting spot by coach Joachim Low as Germany arrived at the World Cup. Ter Stegen was dropped. He had replaced Neuer more than admirably, had been just as good and had become, undeniably, a legitimate No. 1 for just about anybody — just not his own team.
Sports are often cast as the ultimate meritocracy — if you play well enough, you’ll make it — but what about in this circumstance? Ter Stegen stepped in when his teammate got hurt and did the job as well (if not better) than the person he replaced but was seemingly not allowed to keep that job because of the way he gained it.