Sky, RTL, and n-tv reported on Friday that Per Mertesacker will succeed Andreas Rettig as sporting director of the German Football Association starting from January 1 next year.

Rettig had already announced his resignation in December.

The former defender Mertesacker won the World Cup in 2014 in Brazil with the German national team, then spent eight years as head of the youth academy at English club Arsenal, and was also a prominent television sports analyst.

Mertesacker's expected appointment comes as part of radical changes in the German Football Association, with Jürgen Klopp set to be appointed as technical director of the senior national team after the team's third consecutive early exit from the World Cup.

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