Joachim Löw interviewed on Laureus.com as Germany World Cup winners are nominated for Laureus World Team of the Year Award
Looking to the future, Löw said: ‘At present we are going through a period of change, but I believe we can remain at this high level’
Laureus Ambassador Fabio Capello comments: ‘My heart says Real Madrid, but Germany national team is the best team in the world’
Germany World Cup winning coach Joachim Löw has said he is ‘extremely honoured’ by the Nomination for the 2015 Laureus World Team of the Year Award following his side’s success in Brazil last year.
In an interview with Laureus.com, Löw said: “We are the first European team to have won a world football championship in South America. I think that was a marvellous achievement on the part of everyone involved. So we shall see. Naturally we would be delighted to win.”
Following the 1-0 World Cup final victory over Argentina, Löw said: “The sheer joy on the pitch, and afterwards in the changing room, was something I have never before experienced, and in some way it was also the reward for us all, for many, many years of hard work and intensive effort.”
Also nominated for the Laureus World Team of the Year Award are Real Madrid, the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One team, the European Ryder Cup team, San Antonio Spurs and the Swiss Davis Cup team. The winners of the Laureus World Sports Awards will be announced in Shanghai on April 15.
Löw added: “All of them have delivered outstanding performances. Real Madrid are the Champions League winners and they undoubtedly played outstanding football. Of course the Mercedes-Benz Formula One team also had a wonderful season with amazingly exciting races and I think that was also a superb performance.”
The Germany World Cup team has received support for its Nomination from world-famous coach and Laureus Ambassador Fabio Capello, now in charge of the Russian national team, but a former manager of Real Madrid. He said: “My heart says Real Madrid, but when one team wins the competition at the World Cup, I think it’s the most important competition in this last year. For this reason, I think, Germany national team is the best team in the world.”
When asked if he always believed that Germany could win the World Cup, or did he have doubts, Joachim Löw said: “In the beginning you don’t really think about the title much, as your main concern is to get off to a good start, to survive the group stage. As the team coach it is all about getting the team into a mindset where we take one match at a time in phases.
“But after the game against France, when we had gone past the quarter-finals, I certainly had the feeling that anything was possible now. There were just four teams left in the contest, we had the quality and class and I felt that we had become more mature than we perhaps were in 2010 or 2012.
“After the 7-1 game against Brazil, when we were in the changing room after this really outstanding victory, I noticed that the team was relatively modest, there was no atmosphere of euphoria or overconfidence, instead they all said to me ‘Coach, we have not achieved anything yet, we still have one match to go’ That gave me the feeling that perhaps the time had now come and we could do it.”
Although the football world expects Germany to dominate international football in the future as Spain had previously done, Löw feels his team will be in transition in the next few seasons. “At present we are going through a period of change. A number of players who were leading personalities, both in terms of performance on and off the pitch, have now ended their careers. So a changeover is taking place to some extent. But where talented players and their quality are concerned, I firmly believe that we can be hopeful about the future and will remain at this high level.”
He is also very complimentary about the skills and abilities of Mario Götze, a Nominee for the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award, after scoring the winning goal in the World Cup final.
He said: “I find the way he has developed over the last two years remarkable, as he had gone through a tough time around two and a half years ago, when he was injured for six months, and nobody was really sure how quickly he would be back on form. In the last two years I have also noticed an unbelievable change in Mario. Starting out as a very young player he has matured from a promising talent into a highly professional player.
“I have also noticed that he puts in a lot of additional effort in training, in his diet and in his lifestyle, so that for his young years he is unbelievably professional and ambitious. He was an unbelievably important player for us in the World Cup, not only because of the goal he scored in the final but because of his whole manner of playing, which always makes him unpredictable for the opponent.”
