FRANKFURT:  Joachim Löw has reportedly agreed to extend his contract as manager of world champions Germany until 2020 writes KEIR RADNEDGE.

Sources close to the German DFB have indicated that terms have been negotiated for the 56-year-old to continue in a role he has held since succeeding Jurgen Klinsmann, to whom he had been assistant, in the summer of 2006.

Low’s continuance will come as a relief within German football and the federation in particular in representing a welcome sign of stability after the 2006 World Cup cash scandal along with the accession of politician Reinhard Grindel as DFB president in place of banned Wolfgang Niersbach.

The DFB refused to comment formally on reports in the German media about Low’s decision though the coach has recently confirmed “some talks” were ongoing.

Grindel had said last week that “Joachim Löw is the best coach we can imagine.”

Löw guided Germany to success in the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, the first European nation to win the greatest prize in the game outside its home continent.

He has enjoyed less fortune in the European Championship. Germany were beaten finalists in 2008 then defeated semi-finalists in 2012 and this past summer in France.

Now he is building a new team with a view to securing qualification, as soon as possible, for the 2018 World Cup finals with an experienced but still hungry nucleus with the likes of Mats Hummels, Jerome Boateng, Mesut Özil, Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller and Manuel Neuer.

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