Going out at the top of a career is seen to be the mark of a great sportsman and for a footballer it doesn’t come any higher than captaining your national team to victory in the World Cup final.
Philipp Lahm had already decided it was time to end an international career stretching back 10 years before it reached a glorious peak when Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff handed him the golden trophy last Sunday as captain of new world champions Germany.
He had just played his 113th match for them, winning highly positive reviews, just as he had done in the very first one.
After that debut, at the age of 20 against Croatia in February 2004, he was named man of the match by the influential German football magazine Kicker.
Having appeared for the national team at every level from Under-17 to Under-21, he went on to play at Euro 2004, then two further European championships and three World Cups, starting with the Germans’ home tournament in 2006.
He scored the opening goal of that competition against Costa Rica and was captain for the other two, demonstrating his versatility by starting each of the three tournaments in a different position.
In 2006 Lahm was left-back, in 2010 right-back and by the start of this year’s finals was in central midfield, the role Bayern Munich’s coach Pep Guardiola had moved him to.
Guardiola called Lahm the most intelligent player he had ever worked with and was not surprised to find his club captain adapting effortlessly to the role.
National coach Joachim Loew was similarly impressed and shifted him there for Germany too – despite repeated criticism and questioning of the move.
Captain of Germany since 2010 in succession to Michael Ballack, Lahm began the 2014 group matches in midfield but after a vulnerable defence conceded two goals in the draw against Ghana, he was moved to right-back for the quarter-final against France.
The re-organised back four immediately looked more settled and Lahm rediscovered his ability to roam.
From then on the team conceded only one goal in three games, scored in the last minute by a Brazil team already 7-0 down.
Difficult start
Like many before him – few of them World Cup winners – Lahm has now decided to concentrate on playing for his club, in his case the one he joined at 12 years of age.
His debut for the first team was as a late substitute in a Champions League game in November 2002, but with first-team opportunities limited he moved on loan to VfB Stuttgart for two seasons.
Bayern, however, knew what they had and from 2006 he became a regular first-choice, and the honours flowed in: a total of six Bundesliga titles and six German Cups, including the past two seasons, and three Champions League finals in four seasons, with victory over big rivals Borussia Dortmund at Wembley in 2013.
There was a rare controversy for a generally calm character five years ago when he was fined a reported 20,000 pounds for an unauthorised interview criticising the club.
That was quickly forgotten as Bayern returned to winning ways, more of which seem highly likely under Lahm’s captaincy as he devotes all his energies in future to club football.