Germany will be celebrating for weeks after being crowned as FIFA World Cup champions, having defeated Argentina 1-0 at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

This is the fourth time Germany's national football team takes the World Cup home, with Mario Götze, the 22-year-old midfielder from Memmingen, Bavaria,  scoring an excellent goal in the second half of extra time. 

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The tense clash between Germany and Argentina was heading towards a series of penalties when Andre Schuerrle ran off to the left after 113 minutes, sending a cross that Götze took down on his chest and slammed past Argentine goalkeeper Sergio Romero.

The spectacular strike made Germany the only European team to ever win the World Cup in South American soil.

Gotze immediately became an overnight sensation, with stories of his personal and career triumphs splashed on every major paper worldwide. 

Just last summer, Gotze was embroiled in a transfer brawl between Germany's two biggest teams, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Bayern found out that Mario had a buy-out clause in his contract, a week before the two squared off at Wembley for the UEFA Championship.

Gotze became the second highest paid German soccer player after Bayern spent US$50 million for the attacker. Gotze didn't play in that match.

At a post-game presser in Rio Sunday night, his manager, Joachim Low said he told Gotze at half time of extra time to show the world that "you're better than Messi and that you can decide the World Cup."

Super Mario did just that.

After the game, Mario posed on the field holding his best mate Marco Reus' shirt (No. 21) as he dedicated the winning goal to the latter. 

Reus was with Gotze at Dortmund's academy, but a bad injurty prevented Marco from joining the World Cup team and going to Brazil.

As much as Argentina longed for their win in the Americas, Germany showed it deserved victory early, pinning down Argentinian team captain Lionel Messi much of the time.

The Germans did have their share of misfortunes, starting from when midfielder Sami Khedira pulled a calf muscle and was replaced by Christoph Kramer.

Kramer played for only 32 minutes after smashing into Ezequiel Garay, leaving him dazed.

Schuerrle was put forward with an offensive midfield role while Mesut Ozil dropped back into a defensive, central position.

Germany was able to end the half with 65 percent possession and Benedikt Hoewedes forcefully heading against a post but was flagged offside.

In the 20^th minute, a loose ball went straight to Higuain but was not able to make a perfect shot. Ten minutes later, he still swept the ball home and went on a long celebratory run, only to find out that a flag went up for offside.

At half time, it was expected that the match will call for extra time, although Kroos could have cleared it up if he was able to strike the 82^nd minute shot with better precision instead of widely sidefooting the ball.

Götze finally put a superb climax to the with his remarkable strike, a suitable finale with the 171^st goal of the match that tied the record which was set in France in 1998.

TagsGerman National Football Team, Mario Gotze