World cup-winning Loew to quit after 15 years as Germany’s head coach

Germany's World Cup-winning head coach Joachim Loew will step down after the European championships this July, the German FA confirmed Tuesday.

In a statement, Loew said he was "full of pride and enormous gratitude" after nearly 15 years as national coach and that he was "motivated" for his swansong at the European championship from June 11-July 11.

The 61-year-old has been in charge of Germany since 2006 and lifted the 2014 World Cup in Brazil at the height of his tenure.

However, he has been heavily criticized since Germany exited the group stages at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Local media are already debating who will become the next head coach of Die Mannschaft. And while for most people logical choice would be to hire Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp or Bayern’s Hansi Flick growing number of big football names in Germany are proposing – legendary Lothar Matthaus.

“I can think of three names - and one is perhaps unusual. Jurgen Klopp, Hansi Flick and Lothar Matthaus. Lothar can always be heard on television - and he is always right about what he says. He's a great coach from what I've heard from his former players. He has 150 international matches, he knows everything about football," daily newspaper Bild quotes Mehmet Scholl.

Not the only one raising his hand for Matthaus.

“I would appreciate it if Lothar became national coach. I would be 1000 percent behind it. He can explain football as well as a few. And: Every player has a lot of respect for him," said Andreas Brehme who was Matthaus’s teammate in winning the World Cup in 1990, and a scorer of a winning goal in the final against Maradona’s Argentina.

In that German team, there was also Klaus Augenthaler, another big name campaigning for Matthaus.

“Lothar can do it! Lothar was a coach, and now he's been analyzing the Sky games very well for years."

But to be honest, Matthaus hasn`t had much success as a coach. He guided Partizan to the Champions League group stage in 2002, led Hungary and Bulgaria with no significant success and his last job was – ten years ago. Still, Hertha coach Pal Dardai – who played under Matthaus as coach of the Hungarian national team between 2003 and 2005 – defends his former boss.

“All I can say is: he can do great things. He has the potential to be a winning coach. He is huge professionally and as a motivator, has a lot of experience, and can deal with people well."

Anyway, those are some big shoes to fill in. Not everyone can brag about winning World Cup. Loew did that. And played in the final of the European championship in 2008. But then came the disappointing World Cup in 2018, humiliating 0-6 loss from Spain in a Uefa Nations League…

And Jogy didn`t have a choice.