Joachim Low's Germany Contract To Be Extended
The German football federation (DFB) have announced plans to offer a two year extension to Germany Head Coach, Joachim Low, after a young German team impressed at the World Cup, in South Africa.
The extension means that Joachim Low will be the German head coach until the next World Cup in Brazil, in 2012. An extension has also been awarded to the team manager, Oliver Bierhoff and assistant coaches Hans-Dieter Flick and Andreas Koepke.
Low's contract expired at the end of the World Cup and the German football federation had to be very careful in order to make sure they did not lose the infuential coach, who has seen Germany through a transition period of sorts, bringing out young players such as Thomas Muller, Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira and Manuel Neuer.
After the injury suffered by Germany Captain, Michael Ballack, it looked like Germany would not be able to match their impressive performances at the European Championships and the World Cup before that, however, Joachim Low oversaw some of the best football seen at the World Cup in South Africa, making it to the Semi Final, and eventually winning the third place play off game against Uruguay.
Low has also been credited with a very attractive attacking style of play, one which differs significantly from a very defensive way of playing football which has been associated with German's traditionally.
Low succeeded Jurgen Klinsmann after a third place finish at the World Cup played on home turf and had a lot of pressure coming into the job. With time, though, he has grown into the role and has come to be respected by fans and former players as well. In the last four years, Germany have managed 38 victories from 55 matches, making Germany one of the most formidable sides in the world.
Due to their impressive performances in major tournaments, Germany are now ranked fourth in the world, ahead of teams such as England, Argentina and Portugal. Only Brazil, Spain and the Netherlands are rated as better than the Germany team, which one must remember, was one of the youngest at the tournament.
Football pundits from all over the globe see a very bright future for this current squad, as the players mature into seasoned professionals and gain some more valuable experience at the highest level. Low's ability to get the best out of these players has been seen as crucial by the German football federation and that has led to them making sure Low signed an extension of his contract.
With the financial details and other contractual matters settled, Low will now turn his attention towards the qualification campaign for European Championships in 2010 and the contentious issue of deciding just who is going to captain the side, after both the stand-in captain, Philipp Lahm, and the injured Michael Ballack said that they would like to captain Germany in the upcoming matches.
Low is one of the younger coaches in international football and it is nice to see that his country's giving him a chance and he has a great chance to lead Germany to a 4th World Cup win in the next tournament.
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