The midfielder struck the decisive goal as Germany beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time in Rio de Janeiro and reflected on how a single moment has defined his career in the game.

Gotze told FIFA.com: "In the end, it changed everything for me. The perspective I had, the perspective the media had, my family, everything, because of course it's a very special moment.

"Normally, you can't have that in your career, so I was lucky to do that. I was lucky to play two World Cups and have that moment in the final. Then everything changed, of course, because I was 22 back then. I'm 34 now, and I have to have a different perspective than I did back then."

Gotze – who now plays for Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt – admits that he found it hard to maintain the "standard" he set in the early years of his career, where he tasted success at both club (for Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich) and international level.

He said: "I was in Dortmund before then. I had won a couple of championships and cups in Germany. Then I won the World Cup. That was the first five years (of my career). That was the standard. To keep that standard was very difficult for me, and to also understand that it can't always go that way.

"In the next four years, I had to accept that I wouldn't be in another (World Cup) final and score a goal to keep that level, or keep winning that amount of trophies.

"Maybe if you're (Lionel) Messi or (Cristiano) Ronaldo, okay, but otherwise it's impossible. I had to understand that from that moment, it was a different phase in my career, and that took me a couple of years to understand."