Löw extends contract

Joachim Löw has extended his contract as the coach of the German national football team through until 2018.

The World Cup winning coach, who took over as German head coach in 2006 after two years as assistant, extended his contract until 2016 before the World Cup in Brazil. Now, in a press conference Friday, it was announced that the 55-year old will be in charge of the team through to the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.

"It was a decision where my heart and my mind both said yes," Löw said at the press conference.

"We waited a long time for the success that we had in Brazil and we all want to experience that again. We have the prerequisites to achieve it once more."

Löw's contract will officially go until after the tournament, until July 31 2018. Assistant coach Thomas Schneider and goalkeeping coach Andreas Köpke also extended their contracts through 2018.

"I am really very happy that Joachim Löw is going to stay coach of Germany until the 2018 World Cup," DFB-President Wolfgang Niersbach said in the press conference in Frankfurt.

"With his skills, his ambition and class, Jogi does the national team and the German Football Association a lot of good. We want to stay at world number one, that is our joint goal."

In addition, it was also announced on Friday that the team's commercial manager, Oliver Bierhoff, would take over organization of the German Football Association's DFB Academy. The DFB say that they hope the new initiative will groom talent and ideas for the national team for years to come.