Jurgen Klinsmann believes it is a fitting tribute for Zinedine Zidane to end his glittering career in Sunday's World Cup final.

Zidane scored twice in the 1998 final as France beat Brazil in Paris to win the trophy for the first time.

He initially retired from international football after Euro 2004, along with Lilian Thuram and Claude Makelele.

The trio were tempted to return by boss Raymond Domenech but Real Madrid maestro Zidane will retire from all football after the Berlin showpiece against Italy.

Klinsmann said: "I have always been a huge fan of Zizou, the way he plays and what he achieves, how he gets his time.

"Even if you are a coach, you can be a fan of a player of his status and talent.

"He has a career that is difficult to compare with others. In his time period, he has been exceptional.

"He deserves to be in that final. It's wonderful to watch him. We will all watch the game with big interest."

Zidane, 34, has produced some vintage moments as Domenech's team overcame a slow start to make it all the way to Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

He was man of the match in the quarter-final with Brazil and scored the semi-final winner from the penalty spot against Portugal.

Klinsmann's team play the Portuguese in the third-place play-off in Stuttgart this evening.

Germany's Lukas Podolski has already won the prize for the best young player at the World Cup finals and Miroslav Klose is two goals clear in the race for the Golden Shoe, awarded to the top scorer.

Klinsmann said: "Podolski has a great future. He has gone up and up in the past few years and it has not always been easy for him. He had to fight through the second division with Cologne.

"In his heart of hearts, he knows there are still many years of hard work in front of him.

"He knows he has to develop and become a better footballer but, injury permitting, he has a great future.

"He will help Miro in his quest for the scorer's title. Miro will play in Stuttgart and I hope he will get one or two more goals."

Klinsmann's team lost to Italy in the semi-final but he reflected on a successful tournament and admitted the biggest surprise was the demise of Brazil.

The Germany boss said: "The Europeans dominated the semi-finals and I think the whole world would have hoped for more brilliance from Brazil.

""The over-riding feeling of the World Cup is a positive one.

"Many German players have left their mark on the World Cup.

"I hope many make it into the World Cup XI but we were not ogling that title at the beginning.

"Some of the great winners at the World Cup have been our individual defenders. They were branded as dodgy before the event but come out of it with flying colours.

"Podolski and [Bastian] Schweinsteiger had a good tournaments and more experienced players likes [Torsten] Frings and [Bernd] Schneider have proven their worth. Frings tore his heart out on the pitch for us."

Frings slammed FIFA's disciplinary chiefs yesterday for the suspension which ruled him out of the semi-final defeat to Italy.

The Werder Bremen midfielder was handed a two-match ban with one game suspended for his part in the brawl which followed Germany's quarter-final penalty shootout win over Argentina.