Schalke and Germany U21 goalkeeper Alexander Nübel may have gotten used to comparisons with Manuel Neuer, but there was a time when he was more accustomed to scoring goals rather than keeping them out.

Nübel is widely considered Germany's long-term heir to Neuer - who also got his big break at Schalke, before joining Bayern in summer 2011. The 23-year-old is already over halfway to reaching a century of Bundesliga appearances, and has won 17 caps for the Germany U21s - all despite starting out as a gifted striker.

"We couldn't do without him up front," Nübel's youth coach at former club Paderborn, Marco Cirrincione, told Spox. "He was great in the air, and had this incredible drive to get on the end of every ball. He was fearless.

"But he occasionally took part in goalkeeping exercises at the start of our sessions, and when one of our keepers decided to pack it all in for table tennis, Alex played in goal a bit.

"He still wanted to play as a striker, so we called him the 'striker-keeper'," Cirrincione added, recalling how Nübel lined up in attack in over three quarters of his appearances in the D-Junior team. "He registered seven goals and six assists, and was our third best goals and assists provider. I remember a game against Verl: it was 0-0, but Alex went outfield at half-time. He exploded, and scored twice in a 5-0 win.

"He actually found being in a goal a bit boring. He loved driving forward and scoring goals. We had a few chats about his position and he wasn't happy about a few things at first, but he adapted quickly and even bypassed a few age groups."

Changing of the guard: Nübel's (r.) emergence forced Ralf Fährmann (l.) to look elsewhere for first-team football. - imago/Team 2

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Before long, the 'striker-keeper' was being compared to the 'sweeper-keeper', Neuer. His Paderborn teammates even nicknamed him 'Manuel' - and not just because he was a member of the six-foot-plus club of German custodians.

At 15, Nübel was already playing for the Paderborn U17s. He made the seamless step up to the reserves in the year he turned 18, and had been named among the Paderborn substitutes in six Bundesliga matches in 2014/15, when Schalke came calling later that summer.

The 6'4" stopper made his top-flight debut on Matchday 34 of the following season in a 4-1 win over Hoffenheim, but had to wait another two years before featuring for the first team again. He played in the Royal Blues' final outing of 2017/18, before unseating then skipper Ralf Fährmann during the ensuing campaign.

Watch: Skip to 01:26 to see Alexander Nübel in action

"He always kept his cool, and didn't let [being further down the pecking order bother him]," Cirrincione said of Nübel's formative Schalke years. "In the shadow of Fährmann he was able to observe how professional football works, and then made his own breakthrough."

Nübel kept five clean sheets in his 18 Bundesliga outings in 2018/19, putting in some stellar shifts for a Schalke team that flirted with the relegation places before securing top-flight status with two games to spare.

He was named Schalke captain by new coach David Wagner following Fährmann's move to English Premier League side Norwich City, and has since helped steer the Royal Blues back into the upper echelons of the Bundesliga standings.

"It's really quite something - it's like he came out of nowhere," commented Germany goalkeeping coach, Alexander Köpke, at a recent press conference. "He plays like he's been playing there forever."

He hasn't, but that's testament to the top-level goalkeeper Nübel has become in no time at all. Even Neuer is impressed.

"He could be," replied the Bayern and Germany captain when asked if Nübel could one day succeed him as his country's No.1. "He needs the experience that he will definitely get, but he's already developed really well."

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