Former Arsenal star, Shkodran Mustafi has retired from playing football and bagged a job as an Under-17s national team coach.
The defender, who also won the World Cup, revealed that coaching has been on the edges of his mind for a while.
At the age of 32, the former Germany international is relatively youthful for an elite footballer hanging up his boots.
However, he spent the entirety of last season as a free agent after leaving Levante, and was only able to make three outings in his final year at the Spanish side due to inury.
Mustafi has assumed the assistant manager role under Marc Meister at Germany’s Under-17s and will start on July 1.
He said: ‘I’ve been thinking about gaining experience as a coach for a while.
‘On the one hand, it’s a shame that it’s coming so soon because I would have liked to have played football myself for longer.
‘On the other hand, I’m really looking forward to the time ahead and to taking my first steps as a coach at the DFB.
‘I want to pass on all the experience I’ve gained during my time with the U15s, U21s and of course with the senior national team to the boys.’
Mustafi accumulated 20 caps for Germany over a three-year span between 2014 and 2017, picking a good time to break into Joachim Low’s set-up.
