Breaking: Joachim Low will resign as Germany national team coach after Euro 2020

It’s official: Germany coach Joachim Low has announced that he will be stepping down from his position after the European Championship this summer.

“I’m taking this step very consciously, full of pride and enormous gratitude, but at the same time will continue to be very motivated when it comes to the upcoming European Championship,” he said.

He went on to say that he was proud to have worked with and developed the best players of the nation for 17 years, but most of all to be involved in the national team in the first place.

“I have great triumphs with them and painful defeats, but above all many wonderful and magical moments - not just winning the 2014 World Cup in Brazil,” he said. “I am and will remain grateful to the DFB, which has always provided me and the team with an ideal work environment.”

Low started his career with Germany by guiding them to a silver medal at Euro 2008, which was followed by two semifinal runs in the 2010 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2012. His crowning moment came in 2014 when he won the World Cup in Brazil. He went on to reach the semis again at Euro 2016 and won the FIFA Confederations Cup a year later.

However, in 2018, he was responsible for Germany’s worst ever World Cup in years by crashing out of the group stages after losing to Mexico and South Korea (wink wink), and also finished bottom of the group in the 2018-19 UEFA Nations League. Although he did ever so slightly redeem himself by topping his Euro 2020 qualifying group, questionable decisions and unsatisfactory results, including a historic 0-6 defeat to Spain, ultimately set his already hot seat on fire.

Now that Low’s Germany career is coming to a close, two big questions remain: who will replace him as Bundestrainer, and just how will he perform at the upcoming Euros?

For the first question, Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp is one of the biggest names linked to the job, although former RB Leipzig manager Ralf Rangnick and current Bayern Munich boss Hansi Flick have been brought up as well.

As for the second question, Germany are already facing an uphill battle from the group stages, being set to play world champions France and European champions Portugal in their first two games. Expectations are naturally low, but the coach has declared that his departure will not have an effect on his ambitions for the tournament.

“I still feel the unconditional will as well as great energy and ambition for the upcoming European Championship,” he said. “I will do my best to make our fans happy and be successful at this tournament. I also know that this applies to the entire team.”

One thing is for sure, the German national team will be going through a turbulent phase of change in the coming months. Will Die Mannschaft rise again, or will it stay dead as it has been for the past two years? That remains to be seen.