Manuel Neuer, the goalkeeper for Bayern Munich and the German national team, revealed in an interview with France Football that being a goalkeeper was never a personal choice for him.

He said, "The coach put me in goal when I joined Schalke's youth team. There was no goalkeeper, and no one wanted to play in that position. We played on hard pitches, artificial grass, and even places that resembled parking lots, and diving to the ground was very painful."

Neuer added that his love for the game made him excel in an unconventional way: "I loved playing outside the goal with my friends, I enjoyed touching the ball with my feet on the ground and participating in the play, even when I was in the goal, I didn't just use my hands."

Neuer concluded his remarks by emphasizing how the combination of his love for playing with the ball and his goalkeeping skills led him to innovate his modern style known as the "sweeper-keeper," making him one of the best goalkeepers in the world and forever changing the concept of his position.