Joachim Low Decides to Honour Germany Contract After World Cup Exit

Joachim Low has decided to remain as Germany manager following their premature exit from the 2018 World Cup. 

Germany confirmed Low will carry on in his role, seeing out the contract he signed the month prior to the tournament, which will keep him in charge of the national team until 2022, after taking some time to make a decision on his future.

Bild's Christian Falk (h/t MailOnline's Michael Searles) first reported the news.

Die Mannschaft were beaten by Mexico and South Korea in Russia, condemning them to their first group-stage exit at a World Cup since 1938.

German newspaper FAZ (h/t Goal's Ronan Murphy) took a look at what went wrong for the team under Low:

The signs that all was not well were there even before the tournament began. They were beaten 2-1 by Austria in the first of their two warm-up friendlies and squeezed past Saudi Arabia—whom Russia dispatched 5-0 in the opening game of the World Cup—by the same scoreline in the second.

Manuel Neuer retained his place as Germany's No. 1 goalkeeper ahead of Barcelona stopper Marc-Andre ter Stegen despite his last Bayern Munich appearance coming in September because of injury, and talk of disruption in the camp did little to help either.

Low has been manager of the German national team since replacing Jurgen Klinsmann after the 2006 World Cup, but until this tournament he has boasted an incredible record with the side, per football commentator Arlo White:

After overseeing a historical failure from Die Mannschaft, he'll be eager to atone at the next World Cup and in the European Championship and UEFA Nations League in the meantime.

He would also have been walking away from a lucrative deal had he stepped down, per ESPN's Darren Rovell:

Getting Germany back on their feet, particularly if there are rifts within the squad that need healing, and transitioning to their newer generation of players will be one of the biggest challenges of Low's career, but his earlier record speaks for itself and he has earned the chance to put things right.

The players will also be driven to make amends for their failure, so they'll need to work with Low in the coming years to do so.