Joachim Löw, the world's longest-serving national team coach

In March 2020, Uruguay's football association laid off its longtime first team coach Oscar Tabarez, 73, as it struggles financially amid the coronavirus crisis. His removal made Germany coach Joachim Löw, whose tenure began three months after Tabarez's in 2006, the longest-serving coach in international football.

Joachim Löw's career as a player was anything but spectacular. In his 52 Bundesliga matches as a striker for Stuttgart, Eintracht Frankfurt and Karlsruhe, the native of southwestern Germany found the back of the net just seven times. Much of his time as a player was spent at then-second division side Freiburg.

Even before he hung up his boots, Joachim Löw turned his hand to coaching, first as a youth coach at Swiss outfit FC Winterthur, where he was still playing in 1994. In 1995 he broke into the Bundesliga as co-coach at his former club Stuttgart, before being named head coach a year later. Here he is seen speaking to Thomas Schneider, who would later become his assistant with the national team.

Despite winning the German Cup with Stuttgart in 1997, Löw was let go by the Swabians. In the summer of 1998 he took a job with Istanbul side Fenerbahce and led them to a third-place finish. Still, he would only last a year at the club.

After spells at Karlsruhe, Adanaspor and Innsbruck, Löw moved on to Austria Vienna, in the summer of 2003. This too would turn out to be a short interlude, as he was sacked in March, despite the club occupying first place in the table. Without him, Austria would finish second in the league by a single point.

After Rudi Völler resigned as coach of the German national team, another former Germany striker, Jürgen Klinsmann, took over. One of Klinsmann's first moves as Germany coach was to appoint Löw as his assistant.

Klinsmann and Löw led Germany into the 2006 World Cup on home soil, where they lost to Italy in the semifinals. The "home" World Cup created a vibrant atmosphere all over Germany, where public viewing of games first took place on a large scale. Here Klinsmann and Löw are flanked by goalkeeping coach Andreas Köpke and manager Oliver Bierhoff at a post-tournament event in Berlin.

After succeeding Klinsmann as head coach, Löw's first major tournament in charge was Euro 2008. He led Germany to the final in Vienna, but they were defeated 1-0 by Spain.

At his first World Cup as head coach, Joachim Löw's young squad cruised by England (4-1) in the round of 16 and crushed Argentina (4-0) in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, though, Germany ran into the more experienced Spanish side, who prevailed 1-0. Here Löw is seen congratulating a young Mesut Özil during the England match.

Joachim Löw's men got off to a perfect start to Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, winning all three of their group-stage matches, before beating Greece 4-2 in their quarterfinal: It was Germany's 15th consecutive win, setting a new world record. However, there would be no happy ending, as Germany fell 2-1 to bogey side, Italy.

It all came together for Löw in 2014. Germany beat Portugal and the US, while drawing with Ghana to progress from the group stage. They needed extra time to beat Algeria in the round of 16 and struggled past France 1-0. But they crushed hosts Brazil 7-1. The final, against Argentina, also went to extra time, before Mario Götze scored the winner to give Germany a 1-0 win — and the World Cup.

Löw's next major tournament was Euro 2016, just next door in France. Germany advanced to the knockout stage with two wins and a draw before beating Slovakia and Italy to set up a semifinal showdown against the hosts in Marseille. Germany came up short though, falling 2-0 to France.

Germany won their first Confederations Cup under Joachim Löw in 2017. It was far from Germany's best side that turned out in Russia, with Löw choosing to rest several first-string players in ancipation of the World Cup 12 months later. Germany beat Chile 1-0 in the final thanks to a goal from Lars Stindl in the 20th minute. Germany's future looked very bright indeed.

With a full-strength squad, Germany were regarded as one of the favorites heading into the 2018 World Cup in Russia. But they looked a shadow of their former selves, losing to Mexico and South Korea and finishing bottom of their group. Despite the poor showing, Löw said he intended to fulfill his contract, which the German football association (DFB) extended until 2022 before the tournament.

After the disaster in Russia, Löw acknowledged errors. He wrongly believed that he could get into the knockout rounds playing possession-based football. "It was almost arrogant," Löw said in his analysis afterwards. He announced a generation change in the team and said he would be dropping Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels und Thomas Müller from the squad.

Germany comfortably qualified for Euro 2020, a tournament that was postponed a year due to COVID-19. Löw appeared to slowly be moving this new Germany team in the right direction, until they suffered a 6-0 loss to Spain in the Nations League. It was the second highest defeat in Germany's football history. "It was a dark day," said Löw afterwards as pressure began to mount.

On March 9, Löw announced that he would be stepping down as head coach following the 2021 European Championships. He spoke of his "pride and gratitude" at having represented Germany for almost 17 years and insisted his motivation ahead of the Euros remains "unbroken." DFB president Fritz Keller expressed his "great respect" for Löw's decision, which gives the DFB time to identify a successor.