Manuel Neuer & Schalke 04: Stay or leave?

German international goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is one of the best keepers in the world. And his future is a much discussed topic in Germany at the moment as his current contract with FC Schalke 04 runs until summer 2012. The club wants to extend, but Neuer is said to have some very interesting offers on the table plus the keeper is said to have not made-up his mind yet.

The 24 year old Gelsenkirchen born footballer has so far in his career only played for one club and that is FC Schalke 04. And like all Schalke fans has one dream and that is winning their first German league title since 1958. And last season when Felix Magath came and took the club to a second place finish behind Bayern Munich, people thought the time has come for a title but this season Schalke are struggling and Neuer has said that he regularly needs to play Champions League to stay Germany number one ahead of rival Rene Adler from Bayer 04 Leverkusen, but that looks unlikely next season.

Schalke in the meanwhile have offered Neuer a contract extension, but if Neuer is thinking of leaving then Schalke need to sell him next summer to cash in on him otherwise he could leave on a free transfer in 2012. And there is interest in Neuer, be it Manchester United who would love to get Neuer in place of retiring Edwin van der Sar or Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich who also could look to replace Butt.

Neuer's Germany team mate Bastian Schweinsteiger told German sports TV channel Sports1, "We don't have a problem in goal at the moment but with Manuel Neuer, we would have the opportunity to bring the best German goalkeeper to the club. And I am always in favour of FC Bayern having the best German players."

But some of the Bayern fans see it differently. In last Saturday's match against St. Pauli a banner was displayed at the Allianz Arena which said, "We don't need a new keeper in Neuer, he have an own good young one." And they meant 22 year old Thomas Kraft, currently number two behind ageing 36 year old Hans-Joerg Butt who could retire at the end of the season. And Bayern Munich surely will want to avoid another scenario like two years ago when Oliver Kahn retired.