Bielefeld’s Stefan Ortega still being considered as a Sven Ulreich replacement at Bayern Munich

Manuel Neuer is fully expected to sign a contract extension at Bayern Munich soon, following suit from Thomas Muller, who just extended his contract until 2024. However, the same can’t be said for backup goalkeeper Sven Ulreich. His contract is set to expire this summer after he was brought back from Hamburg SV last summer. He’s only made a total of eight appearances across all competitions this season, the bulk of which were necessary due to an injury Neuer sustained towards the beginning of the Rückrunde.

Per new information from Abendzeitung, Bayern is still considering whether or not they want to extend Ulreich’s contract for another year. For the time being, Bayern has primarily been focused on the contract situations for Muller, Neuer, Robert Lewandowski, and Serge Gnabry, justifiably so. Because of those players taking precedent, Ulreich’s situation at the club has not really been discussed in detail yet. Ulreich himself would like to have his contract extended, as he is more than happy serving as Neuer’s backup, but it won’t be that simple..

Bayern is also still considering Arminia Bielefeld’s Stefan Ortega, who the club has been linked with for quite some time now. Despite the assumption that Ortega would want to carry on as number one keeper, his representative’s have recently said “everything is open” and that he would potentially be receptive to serving as Neuer’s backup if Bayern was to let Ulreich go this summer.

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For now, though, Ortega is focused on staying in the Bundesliga with Bielefeld, who are two points behind VfB Stuttgart. They would need to eclipse Stuttgart in order to get to the relegation playoff spot and avoid an automatic drop to the 2. Bundesliga. “We are currently weighing the options in peace. For Stefan, staying up in the league with Arminia is more important at the moment,” Ortega’s representatives recently said.

Of course, Bayern is not the only German club that’s interested in Ortega, so there could be stiff competition in the sense that other clubs might be able to guarantee more consistent minutes if not a starting role. At Bayern, he would have to accept that idea of not playing much over Neuer, barring any injury situations. His future, though, would look relatively clear as Alexander Nubel has made it clear that he wants to find a new club after his loan spell with AS Monaco ends next summer. Eventually, someone is going to have to replace Neuer as Bayern’s number one keeper, and the club could very much see Ortega as being that person long-term and might use that in their package to sell to Ortega should that time actually come at the negotiating table.