Germany manager Joachim Loew created history by leading his team to World Cup success. The manager had come into the tournament with a lot of speculation about his future. He had previously failed to lead the German team past the final hurdle, while the defending came under intense scrutiny just ahead of the tournament. Loew, though, put behind every criticism and managed to lead Germany to their first major title in 24 years. Germany managed a 1-0 win over Argentina and won the final at the Maracana stadium in Brazil.

Loew was widely expected to step down from his role if Germany lost the final. As it is, the solitary goal from Mario Gotze in extra time was enough to seal the victory. Germany had many chances to score throughout the match, but they were finally relieved to beat the Argentine goalkeeper in extra time. After the immense success, Loew claimed that this is just the start of a wonderful year for the German national team. A number of players in this team are aged between 23 and 25. Loew reckons that they are yet to hit the peak.

Loew sees no reason why Germany cannot dominate world football for the next 5 to 7 years like Spain did after winning the Euro 2008.

“I think this title will give us a push for the future, we don’t have many players in the squad above 30. Look at Gotze, (Thomas) Muller, (Mesut) Ozil and (Marco) Reus, who wasn’t here – there are a lot of players who can still achieve a lot in their careers. The Bundesliga has a huge influence on the team and the training the young players get; we had an extremely young team in South Africa in 2010. In 2000 and 2004, German football was down and out, we went out in the group phases so we took decisive steps and invested more in the players’ education,” said Loew.