Germany team captain Philipp Liam announced that he will retire from the international games just five days after leading the team to become the World Cup champions.
The 30 year old Munich native played 113 games for Germany and his sudden announcement caught everyone by surprise. According to German legend and current Bayern chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge "It will not be easy to replace Philipp Lahm as a player, as a person and as captain"
Lahm started his football career as early as 11 when he joined the Bayern Munich Junior Team. Youth coach, Jan Pienta recruited the talented full back player several times when he was seen playing for the local youth team. Coaches, Hermann Hummels, even stated that "If Philipp Lahm will not make it in the Bundesliga, nobody will anymore."
Lahm has won twice the Bundesliga youth title, the second time as captain of his team, and then was introduced into the B team at the age of 17.
It was Lahm's agent, Roman Grill, who announced of his retirement. According to grill quoting Lahm "It's the right time for me (after the title). I made the decision that the World Cup in Brazil would be my final tournament"
Lahm is a close ally of Germany coach Joachim Loew and he informed the coach of his decision to retire over breakfast during the morning of their World Cup win. He said that he is leaving the team in "perfect harmony."
On the other hand, DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach knew of the captain's decision last Friday morning saying ""I thanked him for 10 years of superb work together." And that he already knew that nothing can change Lahm's decision "[I] quickly understood that there was no question of making him (Lahm) change his mind."
He also said of Lahm that "[he is] not only an extraordinary player but also an absolute role model. I thanked him for all that he had contributed"
Germany Team member Lukas Podolski as well as Mesut Ozil was supportive of Lahm's decision. Podolski posted on twitter "Philipp, it was an honour for me to battle at your side, to play to celebrate the successes with you for 10 years in the national team and for three years at Bayern."
While Ozil said ""thank you Philipp. Thank you for everything. We are going to miss you!"
