Germany has won the World Cup 2014 – an impressive success honored with a special stamp  

Germany was so confident it would win the World Cup that it pre-printed a run of five million stamps commemorating its soccer victory before the final game even took place.  Just hours after Germany’s victory in Rio de Janeiro, the German Finance Ministry presented a new stamp honoring the new World Cup champions on Monday.  German Finance Ministry spokeswoman Marianne Kothe said of the decision to print the stamps in advance: “We always firmly believed in a success of the German team.”  The 60-cent stamps will go on sale nationwide on Thursday. Commemorative stamps for sporting events have a long tradition in Germany, with recent stamps marking the Olympic Games in London in 2012 and the Women’s World Cup in Germany in 2011.