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Löw: "All titles and successes are the work of a team"

Joachim Löw is the 2014 World Coach of the Year. Germany's coach was named as Jupp Heynckes' successor on Monday evening at the FIFA "Ballon d'Or" gala in Zurich. The 54-year-old World Champion exclusively tells DFB.de what the honour means to him.

Dear Germany fans,

Thank you for your loyalty over the last months and years. Our success in Brazil is also your achievement, as you have always given us great support and your trust has given us strength and confidence. I am always happy with the great amount of enthusiasm that you have shown when accompanying us along the way. The award of World Coach of the Year does not only belong to me, it also belongs to you, the fans. All titles and success are the work of a team.

This award gives me a feeling of great honour and recognition. I am very pleased that I have been allowed to stand among people like José Mourinho, Vicente del Bosque and Jupp Heynckes. Thank you to everyone who voted for me.

I am generally of the opinion that it is difficult to compare a coach's work against another's. Success is measured by titles but I don't think that is the only thing it should be measured by. It is also about how you develop each player and the team as a whole. That spurs me on just as much as it is the target of every sportsman to stand at the top of the podium. I have a great deal of respect for what both Carlo Ancelotti and Diego Simeone have done with their teams this past year and they are both great coaches who would have deserved to have been recognized in this way. The same is true regarding many other coaches around the world, including coaches who work at small clubs in amateur football and are involved in youth development. I also accept this award on behalf of them

Football is a team sport and we became World Champions in Brazil because each one of us had only the team's concerns in our minds. This award thereby belongs to everyone who worked with the team in Brazil, first and foremost the players, who were great throughout the year, and also the physios, and of course the club officials. Our fourth star is the result of a long process which started when I was allowed to stand at the side of Jürgen Klinsmann and continued after the 2006 World Cup with Oliver Bierhoff, Hansi Flick, Andy Köpke and Urs Siegenthaler. Their support, their input and their expertise has shaped the face of the national team and we have together implemented and developed all of our ideas. We have discussed and scrutinized things, sometimes controversially, but have always found good collective solutions.

My thanks go to the entire DFB. The leadership of the association under DFB President Wolfgang Niersbach and General Secretary Helmut Sandrock have always supported us and we all had the freedom we needed to carry out our ideas and to develop the team step-by-step. The coaches of the youth teams also get their share of the thanks, as nearly all of the World Champions have been shaped in their youth through their experience in the DFB's youth teams.

I would also like to thank the Bundesliga and the clubs. The players have benefitted from their training there, as when they come to the national team, they are already well developed as both a person and a footballer, in spite of their youth. The interests of the clubs do not always coincide with the interests of the national team and we take this into account, just like the clubs do. There is a lot of togetherness in football in Germany and we work under excellent conditions. We have found a good way of controlling the players' workloads so that it is fair on both the clubs and the national team.

Together, we still have a lot ahead of us and can't allow ourselves to rest on the laurels of 2014. The achievements are not only a confirmation of our success but they are also an incentive. We want to develop the team and want to become even more versatile, more flexible, quicker in our actions, more dynamic and thus become even more unpredictable. This year we will secure our place at the 2016 European Championships and then we will have a great chance at the tournament in France to give our wonderful fans another fantastic footballing summer.

Best wishes,

Joachim Löw

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Joachim Löw is the 2014 World Coach of the Year. Germany's coach was named as Jupp Heynckes' successor on Monday evening at the FIFA "Ballon d'Or" gala in Zurich. The 54-year-old World Champion exclusively tells DFB.de what the honour means to him.

Dear Germany fans,

Thank you for your loyalty over the last months and years. Our success in Brazil is also your achievement, as you have always given us great support and your trust has given us strength and confidence. I am always happy with the great amount of enthusiasm that you have shown when accompanying us along the way. The award of World Coach of the Year does not only belong to me, it also belongs to you, the fans. All titles and success are the work of a team.

This award gives me a feeling of great honour and recognition. I am very pleased that I have been allowed to stand among people like José Mourinho, Vicente del Bosque and Jupp Heynckes. Thank you to everyone who voted for me.

I am generally of the opinion that it is difficult to compare a coach's work against another's. Success is measured by titles but I don't think that is the only thing it should be measured by. It is also about how you develop each player and the team as a whole. That spurs me on just as much as it is the target of every sportsman to stand at the top of the podium. I have a great deal of respect for what both Carlo Ancelotti and Diego Simeone have done with their teams this past year and they are both great coaches who would have deserved to have been recognized in this way. The same is true regarding many other coaches around the world, including coaches who work at small clubs in amateur football and are involved in youth development. I also accept this award on behalf of them

Football is a team sport and we became World Champions in Brazil because each one of us had only the team's concerns in our minds. This award thereby belongs to everyone who worked with the team in Brazil, first and foremost the players, who were great throughout the year, and also the physios, and of course the club officials. Our fourth star is the result of a long process which started when I was allowed to stand at the side of Jürgen Klinsmann and continued after the 2006 World Cup with Oliver Bierhoff, Hansi Flick, Andy Köpke and Urs Siegenthaler. Their support, their input and their expertise has shaped the face of the national team and we have together implemented and developed all of our ideas. We have discussed and scrutinized things, sometimes controversially, but have always found good collective solutions.

My thanks go to the entire DFB. The leadership of the association under DFB President Wolfgang Niersbach and General Secretary Helmut Sandrock have always supported us and we all had the freedom we needed to carry out our ideas and to develop the team step-by-step. The coaches of the youth teams also get their share of the thanks, as nearly all of the World Champions have been shaped in their youth through their experience in the DFB's youth teams.

I would also like to thank the Bundesliga and the clubs. The players have benefitted from their training there, as when they come to the national team, they are already well developed as both a person and a footballer, in spite of their youth. The interests of the clubs do not always coincide with the interests of the national team and we take this into account, just like the clubs do. There is a lot of togetherness in football in Germany and we work under excellent conditions. We have found a good way of controlling the players' workloads so that it is fair on both the clubs and the national team.

Together, we still have a lot ahead of us and can't allow ourselves to rest on the laurels of 2014. The achievements are not only a confirmation of our success but they are also an incentive. We want to develop the team and want to become even more versatile, more flexible, quicker in our actions, more dynamic and thus become even more unpredictable. This year we will secure our place at the 2016 European Championships and then we will have a great chance at the tournament in France to give our wonderful fans another fantastic footballing summer.

Best wishes,

Joachim Löw