Germany captain Philipp Lahm has retired from international football.
The 30-year-old, who led his team to World Cup success on Sunday, has called time on his Germany career after 113 caps, the German Football Federation announced.
The Bayern Munich man made his debut for Die Nationalmannschaft 10 years ago.
He has been captain since 2010, when he benefited from an injury to Michael Ballack to lead the team in in South Africa.
"This was a decision which had matured during last season," Lahm told Sport Bild magazine after winning his ninth trophy in just two years.
As well as the World Cup, he was also won the Bundesliga twice, the DFB-Pokal twice, the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup, the German Supercup, and the FIFA Club World Cup for Bayern during that time.
German Football Federation (DFB) president Wolfgang Niersbach said he did not try to talk Lahm into chancing his mind.
"Philipp called me this morning and informed me personally of this step," he said.
"During our talk, I realised very quickly that it would have been pointless trying to talk him out of his decision.
"He was not only an exceptional player for the national team in these 10 years, but was always a role model.
"I have thanked him for everything that he has achieved for the DFB."
Lahm led Germany to the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 before crowning his career at the Maracana with an extra-time win over Argentina.
"Philipp is not only an exceptional player, but he is also a great personality off the field," added DFB general secretary Helmut Sandrock.
"I always found him to be very honest, reliable and fair whenever I spoke with him with the national team."
Lahm wrote an open letter on the DFB website in which he thanked fans for "a wonderful time".
He said he had told Germany coach Joachim Low of his decision on Monday at breakfast.
"I am happy and grateful that the end of my career end with the national team coincides with winning the World Cup in Brazil," he said.
Lahm's Germany and former Bayern team-mate Lukas Podolski paid tribute to him on Twitter.
The Arsenal man said: "Philipp, it was an hour to fight, play and celebrate successes at your side for 10 years with the DFB and three years with Bayern."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article