Geneva, Jan 13 (IANS): German football coach Joachim Low said being named the FIFA World Coach of the Year was "icing on the cake" after his team won the World Cup in Brazil.

"Receiving this award after such a successful year is a huge honour for me. It's like the icing on the cake after the World Cup," the 54-year-old told FIFA.com, adding that both Carlo Ancelotti and Diego Simeone would equally have deserved the award, reports Xinhua.

"Becoming a world champion is obviously the ultimate achievement and it can't be topped. It's been our target for many long years. It was the result of long, hard hours of work and a number of good decisions by the association. And it was obviously also a product of our structures and the excellent development programmes in Germany.

"The immense challenge is to follow up the World Cup triumph. One trophy on its own is wonderful, but to do it all over again is a very big task," he added.