FIFA World Cup Trophy

The World Cup is a solid gold trophy that is awarded to the winners of the FIFA World Cup association football tournament. Since the advent of the World Cup in 1930, two different trophies have been used: the Jules Rimet Trophy from 1930 to 1970 and thereafter the FIFA World Cup Trophy from 1974 to the present day. The current trophy is one of the most expensive trophies in sporting history and is valued at $20,000,000.[1]

FIFA World Cup Trophy
FIFA World Cup Trophy
Awarded forWinning the FIFA World Cup
Presented byFIFA
History
First award1930 (Jules Rimet Trophy)
1974 (FIFA World Cup Trophy)
First winner
Most wins Brazil (5 times)
Most recent Argentina (2022)
WebsiteFifa.com

The first trophy, originally named Victory, but later renamed in honour of FIFA president Jules Rimet, was made of gold plated sterling silver and a lapis lazuli base. It depicted Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Brazil were awarded the trophy in perpetuity following their third title in 1970, prompting the commissioning of a replacement. The original Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen in 1983 and has never been recovered.

The subsequent trophy, called the "FIFA World Cup Trophy", was introduced in 1974. Made of 18 karat gold with bands of malachite on its base, it stands 36.8 centimetres high and weighs 6.175 kilograms (13.61 lb).[2] The trophy was made by the Stabilimento Artistico Bertoni company[3] in Italy. It depicts two human figures holding up the Earth. The current holders of the trophy are Argentina, winners of the 2022 World Cup.

Jules Rimet Trophy
Jules Rimet Trophy replica on display in the English National Football Museum. The original was stolen from Brazil in 1983 and has never been recovered

The Jules Rimet Cup was the original trophy of the FIFA World Cup. Originally called "Victory", but generally known simply as the World Cup or Coupe du Monde, it was renamed in 1946 to honour the FIFA President Jules Rimet, who in 1929 passed a vote to initiate the competition. It was designed by French sculptor Abel Lafleur and made of gold-plated sterling silver on a lapis lazuli base.[4] In 1954 the base was replaced with a taller version to accommodate more winner's details. It stood 35 centimetres (14 in) high and weighed 3.8 kilograms (8.4 lb).[5] It comprised a decagonal cup, supported by a winged figure representing Nike, the ancient Greek goddess of victory. The Jules Rimet Trophy was taken to Uruguay for the first FIFA World Cup aboard the Conte Verde, which set sail from Villefranche-sur-Mer, just southeast of Nice, in June 1930. This was the same ship that carried Jules Rimet and the footballers representing France, Romania, and Belgium who were participating in the tournament that year. The first team to be awarded the trophy was Uruguay, the winners of the 1930 World Cup.[6]

Jules Rimet presents the World Cup trophy to Raúl Jude, president of the Uruguayan Football Association, winners of the inaugural 1930 World Cup. This trophy was renamed for Rimet in 1946

During World War II, the trophy was held by 1938 champion Italy. Ottorino Barassi, the Italian vice-president of FIFA and president of FIGC, secretly transported the trophy from a bank in Rome and hid it in a shoe-box under his bed to prevent the Nazis from taking it.[7] The 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden marked the beginning of a tradition regarding the trophy. As Brazilian captain Hilderaldo Bellini heard photographers' requests for a better view of the Jules Rimet Trophy, he lifted it up in the air. Every Cup-winning captain ever since has repeated the gesture.[8]

On 20 March 1966, four months before the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England, the trophy was stolen during a public exhibition at Westminster Central Hall.[9] It was found seven days later wrapped in newspaper at the bottom of a suburban garden hedge in Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood, South London, by a black and white mongrel dog named Pickles.[10][11]

Queen Elizabeth II presenting the Jules Rimet trophy to 1966 World Cup winning England captain Bobby Moore

As a security measure, The Football Association secretly manufactured a replica of the trophy for use in exhibitions rather than the original. This replica was used on occasions up until 1970 when the original trophy had to be handed back to FIFA for the next competition. Since FIFA had explicitly denied the FA permission to create a replica, the replica also had to disappear from public view and was for many years kept under its creator's bed. This replica was sold at an auction in 1997 for £254,500, when it was purchased by FIFA.[12] The high auction price, ten times the reserve price of £20,000–£30,000, was led by speculation that the auctioned trophy was not the replica trophy but the original itself. Testing by FIFA confirmed the auctioned trophy was a replica.[12] Soon afterwards FIFA arranged for the replica to be lent for display at the English National Football Museum, which was then based in Preston but is now in Manchester.[13]

The Brazilian team won the tournament for the third time in 1970, allowing them to keep the real trophy in perpetuity, as had been stipulated by Jules Rimet in 1930.[14] It was put on display at the Brazilian Football Confederation headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, in a cabinet with a front of bullet-proof glass.[15]

On 19 December 1983, the wooden rear of the cabinet was opened by force with a crowbar and the cup was stolen again.[16] Four men were tried and convicted in absentia for the crime.[17] The trophy has never been recovered, and it is widely believed to have been melted down and sold.[18] Only one piece of the Jules Rimet Trophy has been found, the original base, which FIFA had kept in a basement of the federation's Zürich headquarters prior to 2015.[19]

The Confederation commissioned a replica of their own, made by Eastman Kodak, using 1.8 kilograms (4.0 lb) of gold. This replica was presented to Brazilian military president João Figueiredo in 1984.[17]

New trophy
Diego Maradona (left) and Antoine Griezmann (right) with the trophy in 1986 and 2018, respectively

A replacement trophy was commissioned by FIFA for the 1974 World Cup. Fifty-three submissions were received from sculptors in seven countries.[18][20] Italian artist Silvio Gazzaniga was awarded the commission. The trophy stands 36.5 centimetres (14.4 in) tall and is made of 6.175 kilograms (13.61 lb) of 18 karat (75%) gold, worth approximately US$161,000 in 2018. Its base is 13 centimetres (5.1 in) in diameter containing two layers of malachite. Chemist Sir Martyn Poliakoff claims that the trophy is hollow, because if it were solid gold, the trophy would weigh 70–80 kilograms (150–180 lb) and would be too heavy to lift.[21][22] This is easy to understand since 18 k gold is an alloy made of 18 parts of gold, 5 parts of silver and 1 part of copper with a mean density of 15.6 g/cm3.[23][24] The trophy weighs 6175 g, this amount of alloy is just a volume of 390 cm3 or, in other words, would be a cube with a side of 7.3 cm, and the World Cup is clearly larger. This argumentation proves that the World Cup is indeed hollow. Moreover, its original manufacturer, who is the same that makes the official replicas, confirmed this characteristic.[25][26]

Produced by Bertoni, Milano in Paderno Dugnano, it depicts two human figures holding up the Earth. Gazzaniga described the trophy thus, "The lines spring out from the base, rising in spirals, stretching out to receive the world. From the remarkable dynamic tensions of the compact body of the sculpture rise the figures of two athletes at the stirring moment of victory".[18]

The trophy has the engraving "FIFA World Cup" on its base. After the 1994 FIFA World Cup, a plate was added to the bottom side of the trophy where the names of winning countries are engraved, names therefore not visible when the trophy is standing upright. The original trophy is now permanently kept at the FIFA World Football Museum in Zurich, Switzerland. It only leaves there when it goes on its FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour. It is present at the Final draw for the next World Cup, and on the pitch at the World Cup opening game and Final.[27] The FIFA World Cup Trophy Tour was inaugurated for the 2006 FIFA World Cup competition.[28]

The Cup used to be kept by the winning team until the final draw of the next tournament, however, that is no longer the case. Instead the winners of the tournament receive a bronze replica which is gold-plated rather than solid gold. Likewise, three-time winners keep the replica instead of the original cup.[18] Germany became the first nation to win the new trophy for the third time when they won the 2014 FIFA World Cup.[29] Argentina became the second nation to achieve this feat following their win in Qatar at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The inscriptions state the year in figures and the name of the winning nation in its national language. For example, "1974 Deutschland" or "1994 Brasil". In 2010, the name of the winning nation was engraved as "2010 Spain", in English, not in Spanish.[30][31] This was corrected in the new plate made after the 2018 World Cup.[32]

As of 2022, twelve winners have been engraved on the base. The plate is replaced each World Cup cycle and the names of the trophy winners are rearranged into a spiral to accommodate future winners.[18]

Eventual replacement

Since the base of the trophy only has space for new engravings to be made up until the 2038 World Cup, a new trophy will eventually be made for the 2042 World Cup.[33]

Winners
See also: List of FIFA World Cup finals

Historic list of all holders of the trophy (winners of the FIFA World Cup).

Jules Rimet Trophy

FIFA World Cup Trophy

References
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  2. "CBCSports". Archived from the original on 27 July 2015. Retrieved 23 May 2014.
  3. Informant247, The (26 November 2022). "Who designed the FIFA Trophy? What does it symbolize? All you need to know about the World Cup". The Informant247. Retrieved 26 November 2022.
  4. "Guardian". Archived from the original on 14 August 2015. Retrieved 29 November 2018.
  5. "Jules Rimet Cup". FIFA. Archived from the original on 18 March 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  6. Burnton, Simon (13 May 2014). "World Cup: 25 stunning moments … No 16: Conte Verde's trip to Uruguay". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 July 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  7. Sportskeeda (2018). "History of World Cup". Sportskeeda. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  8. "Blatter mourns loss of ex-Brazil captain Bellini". FIFA. 21 March 2014. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  9. "1966: Football's World Cup stolen". BBC News. 20 March 1966. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2010.
  10. Reid, Alastair (10 September 1966). "The World Cup". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 24 February 2007. Retrieved 2 February 2007.
  11. Dean, Jon (18 March 2016). "How my dog found the stolen World Cup trophy – put me in the frame". Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  12. Simon Kuper (2006). "Solid gold mystery awaits the final whistle". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 13 May 2007. Retrieved 5 July 2006.
  13. “Jules Rimet Trophy Returns To Museum Display”. Archived 12 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine. National Football Museum. Retrieved 6 March 2018
  14. Mark Buckingham (2006). "1970 World Cup – Mexico". Sky Sports. Archived from the original on 13 October 2006. Retrieved 2 October 2006.
  15. “World Cup mystery: what happened to the original Jules Rimet trophy?” Archived 8 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine. The Guardian. Retrieved 6 March 2018
  16. Bellos, Alex (2003). Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 342. ISBN 0-7475-6179-6.
  17. "Trophy as filled with history as Cup". CNN. Associated Press. 22 June 2002. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2006.
  18. "The FIFA World Cup Trophy". FIFA. Archived from the original on 1 June 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  19. "World Cup: Piece of original Jules Rimet trophy found". 13 January 2015. Archived from the original on 20 June 2015. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
  20. "Classic Football History of the FIFA World Cup". FIFA. Archived from the original on 29 March 2013. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
  21. Periodic Videos. "Chemistry of the World Cup Trophy". Archived from the original on 16 December 2017. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
  22. "Professor says World Cup trophy cannot be solid gold". BBC News. 12 June 2010. Archived from the original on 6 April 2020. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
  23. "Metals and alloys facts". Archived from the original on 11 August 2016.
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  25. "La Coppa del Mondo, prodotto Made in Italy" (in Italian).
  26. "Il creatore della Coppa del Mondo - Silvio Gazzaniga" (in Italian).
  27. "Historic global journey of the "real" FIFA World Cup Trophy to stop over in 28 countries". FIFA. 6 December 2005. Archived from the original on 30 June 2010.
  28. "2006 FIFA World Cup™ Trophy Tour by Coca-Cola". FIFA. 10 May 2007. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015.
  29. "Germany v Argentina: World Cup final champions not allowed to keep trophy - despite becoming three-time winners". The Telegraph. 6 July 2018. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  30. "Taça da Copa do Mundo chega ao Brasil (World Cup trophy arrives in Brazil)". Globo TV. 21 April 2014. Archived from the original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2014.
  31. "Alemanha x Argentina – AO VIVO". UOL. 13 July 2014. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
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  33. "5 facts you did not know about the FIFA World Cup Trophy". The Daily Star.
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