When he left as Federal Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder once had glassy eyes at the sound of "I did it my way".

There is hardly a song that would suit Joachim Löw better than Frank Sinatra's classic.

The 2014 world champion coach always did it his own way.

When the 61-year-old is officially bid farewell by the German Football Association on Thursday (8.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for World Cup qualifications and on RTL) before the national team's World Cup qualifying match against Liechtenstein, no special song is planned, according to association director Oliver Bierhoff. His long-time companion is sure that the most beautiful melody for Löw is the applause of the 26,000 fans in Wolfsburg.

Löw's soccer tattoo is intended to be an atmospheric ode to the Rio champion.

World Cup failure 2018, 0: 6 humiliation against Spain and also the too abrupt end point at 0: 2 in the European Championship round of 16 against England in Wembley at the end of June are suppressed in the light of Löwschen's lifetime achievement, at least for the solemn occasion.

Hansi Flick, his World Cup assistant and still unbeaten successor, has already issued the certificate: “For me he is the best national coach we have ever had.

He simply set up German football differently, ”said Flick of the German press agency.

"A innovator and visionary"

Löw withdrew after the EM failure, accompanied the upswing under Flick appreciatively from a distance.

Last Wednesday, the first big public meeting followed with Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The laudation by the head of state at Bellevue Palace was almost a presidential declaration of love.

"You gave the people of this country many moments that will remain in the memory of our nation," said Steinmeier.

Honor “a innovator and visionary who has brought German football back to the top of the world.” Löw stood in a black turtleneck - next to a tailored shirt and a shawl knot of one of his typical fashion accessories - next to Steinmeier and smiled politely.

Steinmeier also spoke a lot about Löw's character qualities apart from football.

Even for Thomas Müller, who was eliminated from the DFB circle by the then national coach from 2019 to 2021, these are the important memories despite the humiliation.

"There were ups and downs, it's just the human experiences that last," said the Bayern professional who, like Toni Kroos, played under Löw more often than anyone else with 106 international matches.

"I'm curious to see how things will continue for him professionally," said Müller.

World champions players like Per Mertesacker, Sami Khedira and Lukas Podolski will stand for Löw on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the verbal praise comes from Steinmeier and Flick as well as from all four other former national coaches and team bosses who are still alive and who, according to Flick, did not come close to Löw in the most important coaching position.

"He has taken the team back to earlier heights and is sure to go down in the history of the DFB as one of the most successful coaches," said "Kaiser" Franz Beckenbauer, who won the third World Cup title in 1990 before Löw, the editorial network Germany. "Everyone is talking about the development of German football with great respect - and that is mainly due to him," said Jürgen Klinsmann, who took Löw out of his coaching hole in 2004 and made him his assistant.

In 2006 Löw inherited him at Klinsmann's insistence. 15 years later there are many records. 198 international matches, 124 victories and, above all, the magical night in the Maracana with the World Cup victory in the final against Argentina (1-0 aet). Bierhoff's most impressive memory, however, is four years older than when Löw went to the 2010 World Cup unimpressed after a DFB quarrel without a follow-up contract. That's when he felt the special Jogi spirit, he reported.

Bierhoff's job is to always sell the here and now as well as possible.

In contrast to all hymns of praise, there are also relativizing utterances from a long-term commitment that has cooled down towards the end.

In contrast to Flick, Löw is "someone who also has clear ideas, but who then also carries a lot with him and tends to have a smaller, narrow management circle around him."

Löw, who had a close relationship with Schröder's successor Angela Merkel, did it, to put it with Sinatra, in his own way.