out on the ground or create plays or launch swift counter-attacks from the back. Regarding his technical skills on the ball in comparison to other players in his role, Neuer has stated that he could play in the German third division as a centre-back if so desired. Due to his authoritative leadership and vocal presence in goal, he also excels at communicating with his defenders and organising his team's defensive line. In 2015, Gianluigi Buffon described Neuer as the best goalkeeper of his era in the air. Despite the praise for his style of play and role in the development of the goalkeeper position in football, Neuer has also received criticism in the German media for his reflex-like objection to attacking moves in his box regardless of whether they violate rules or not. In particular, his tendency to instantaneously raise his arm to alert the referee has led to the creation of the German word Reklamierarm (roughly translated: arm of objection) in German media. Personal life Neuer was born in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. He attended Gesamtschule Berger Feld, like many other footballers, such as Mesut Özil. His brother Marcel is currently a football referee in the Verbandsliga. He received his first football when he was two, and he had his first game on 3 March 1991, 24 days before his fifth birthday. Neuer's hero and idol as a child was fellow German and former Schalke goalkeeper Jens Lehmann. Neuer is Catholic, and lends his support to a Gelsenkirchen-based Catholic social action group which campaigns against child poverty and a Gelsenkirchen-based youth club run by the Amigonians. Neuer started a charity foundation for children, named the Manuel Neuer Kids Foundation. In November 2011, he won €500,000 for charity in a celebrity edition of Wer wird Millionär?, the German version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Neuer was in a relationship with Kathrin Gilch until 2014. In 2015, Neuer started a relationship with Nina Weiss. On 21 May 2017, Neuer and Weiss married in Tannheim, Austria, in a civil ceremony, which was followed by a church wedding in the Cathedral of Santissima della Madia in Monopoli, Italy, on 10 June. The couple separated in early 2020, and Neuer started dating Anika Bissel. After an erroneous translation of his statement "it would be good if a professional football player came out because it would help others to do the same", a South