Thomas Mueller Ends Germany Career Following Euro 2024

Germany striker Thomas Mueller said Monday he was drawing a line under his 14-year career with the national team following the conclusion of Euro 2024. "After 131 national team games and 45 goals, I am saying goodbye," Mueller said in a video statement announcing his decision. Mueller, who turns 35 in September, was a key member of the German team that won the 2014 World Cup, beating Argentina in the final after extra time. "When I played my first international match for the German national team over 14 years ago, I could never have dreamed of all this," Mueller said in the video.

"Great victories and bitter defeats. Sometimes on the floor, only to get back up again," he said.

"It always made me very proud to play for my country. We celebrated together and sometimes shed a tear together."

Germany's 2-1 loss to Spain in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024 will go down as Mueller's last game for the national team.

A late extra-time goal by Spain's Mikel Merino dashed Germany's hopes of winning the tournament on home soil.

A tearful Mueller hinted after the game that he had played his last game for Germany.

Mueller said he would hold talks with national team coach Julian Nagelsmann and decide whether it was the "sensible option" to step aside in favour of younger players.

Following Mueller's announcement, Nagelsmann lauded his qualities as a player, adding that the German team would "miss him very much". 

"Nobody is like Thomas Mueller," said Rudi Voeller, the Germany national team director and a prolific striker in his own right.

"His value to German football cannot be overestimated," Voeller said in a statement.

Mueller was "unorthodox, intuitive, unpredictable and that is precisely why (he) is successful", Voeller said.

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