Joachim Löw will remain manager of Germany through at least the 2016 European Championship in France.

Löw replaced Jürgen Klinsmann in 2006 and has led Germany to a third place finish in the 2010 World Cup and a win in 2014.

"I can imagine nothing better than continuing to work with this team," he told the German FA website.

"The 2014 World Cup was a high point for all of us, but it was not an end point."

Brazil will name Dung as manager to replace Luiz Felipe Scolari.

Dunga was the captain of Brazil’s 1994 World Cup-winning team and coached the national team in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. He departed after Brazil lost 2-1 in the quarter-finals to Holland.

The return of Dunga seems to be linked to the naming of Gilmar Rinaldi as the new technical director, replacing Carlos Alberto Parreira.

Steven Gerrard has announced his retirement from international football after 114 appearances for England over 14 years.

Gerrard said he had “agonized” over the decision since returning from Brazil in which he was England's captain.

“This has been a very difficult decision, one of the toughest I’ve had to make in my career,” he told FATV. “I have agonised over this since coming back from Brazil and have spoken to family, friends and people close to me in the game before coming to this point.

“Most importantly, Brendan [Rodgers, his manager at Liverpool] has been fantastic and obviously I have to look after my body as much as possible to ensure I can give everything when I take to the field. To ensure I can keep playing to a high level and giving everything to Liverpool I believe this is the right decision, and having Champions League football back at Anfield is another big factor in my decision.”

Philipp Lahm has retired from international football with Germany effective immediately.

Lahm, 30, captained Germany to their win in the 2014 World Cup.

"Over the course of last season, I made my mind up that I was going to end my international career after the World Cup," Lahm said. "I informed Germany coach Joachim Low of this decision on Monday at breakfast. I am grateful and thankful that the end of my career coincides with winning the World Cup in Brazil with the national team.

"This morning, I bid farewell to DFB [German football association] president Wolfgang Niersbach and expressed my thanks to him for the excellent collaboration with the coaching team of Joachim Low, Hansi Flick, Andy Kopke and general manager Oliver Bierhoff as well as the entire team and all DFB employees for the past ten years."

The 2014 World Cup Final was watched by 26.5 million total viewers in the United States.

ABC drew 17.3 million viewers, while 9.2 million tuned in on Univision to watch Germany defeat Argentina.

It is the third most-viewed World Cup match in United States' history behind US-Portugal in the group stage of 2014 and the women's World Cup Final in 1999.

Mario Götze was sent into the match as a substitute for Germany by Joachim Löw with the instructions to show the world he's a better player than Lionel Messi.

“Götze is a miracle boy,” Löw told reporters after the game. “He can play in any position and has superior technical qualities. I know he is able to decide a match, and he scored a great decider today.”

Matthias Sammer, a native of Dresden in East Germany, played a part in both the unification of the national team and the development of Götze.

The German Football Association hired him as technical director in 2006. Sammer’s specific task was to guide the youth teams, from the ages of 11 to 18, under the direction of Löw.

Götze, born in Bavaria but a product of Borussia Dortmund’s coaching academy starting at age 8, came under Sammer’s wing. Sammer identified the young Götze as “one of the best talents, ever, in Germany” from an early age.

And when Sammer moved on from his national team role to become sports director at Bayern Munich, responsible for recruiting, he went after Götze. The buyout clause in his Dortmund contract cost about $50 million.

Lionel Messi believed Argentina wasted several strong opportunities to score in their 1-0 defeat in the World Cup Final to Germany.

"We haven't been in the semifinals for many years and the fact that we played the final and the way we played it it's something to be proud of," Messi said after the game. 

"But we deserved more and that's why we are sad. The strikers missed the chances we had. It's a bad feeling for all of us because we couldn't win the cup and take it to our people. 

"It's painful to lose it by so little. We were very close to a big change for this national team but we couldn't finish it."

Messi was awarded the Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament, but he took no solace in receiving it.

"I just wanted to win the World Cup. This award means nothing to me now."

Luiz Felipe Scolari has stepped down as manager of Brazil.

Brazil finished fourth in the World Cup, losing in dramatic fashion 7-1 in the semifinals to Germany and 3-0 in the third place match.

Scolari was manager of Brazil in 2002 when they won the World Cup, but was unable to repeat the feat on their home soil.

Brazil played without Neymar and Thiago Silva in the semifinals, but many believed they were lucky to even get that far after less than convincing performances in the group stage before needing penalties to defeat Chile and then beating Colombia 2-1 in a match that was controversial for its inordinate number of fouls relative to lack of yellows.

Lionel Messi won the Golden Ball of World Cup 2014 as the best individual player. Thomas Müller won the Silver Ball, while Arjen Robben won the Bronze Ball.

Manuel Neuer won the Golden Glove as the most outstanding goalkeeper.

The Golden Boot went to James Rodríguez as the top goalscorer with six goals.

Paul Pogba was named the Best Young Player, which is given to the best player who is 21 years old or younger.

Germany has won the 2014 World Cup, defeating Argentina 1-0 with a Mario Götze goal in the second half of extra time.

While Germany dominated possession throughout the match, much of it was without threatening goal. Argentina was strong on the counter and had multiple high opportunity chances, particularly in the first half. Gonzalo Higuain had a goal disallowed on an Ezequiel Lavezzi cross in which he was offside, along with a open shot at goal on a bad header backwards by Toni Kroos.