The World’s Most Coveted Cup

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Beyond glory and international recognition in the football world, it’s the World Cup trophy that drives players from each national team to engage in the world’s premier football competition. This statuette measures 36.8 centimeters and weights in at 6.175 kilograms; made entirely of 18 carat gold, this is the object of every desire. It rests on a base of 13 centimeters in diameter encrusted with two malachite crowns, bearing the names and years of each world champion nation since 1974. This icon representing two athletes lifting up the world is the work of Italian artist Silvio Gazzaniga. This contemporary sculptor who hails from Milan describes his creation with the same passion as a forward in the penalty box: “From the base surges lines that raise up in a spiral to open and receive the world. The silhouettes of the two athletes transcended by victory are born from the remarkable dynamic of the sculpture’s massive base.”

However, as the competition has existed since 1930, Silvio Gazzaniga’s trophy was only ordered and specially chosen by FIFA amongst 53 potential models submitted by experts for the 10th edition of the event. The “FIFA Football World Cup victor’s trophy”, a prize with worldwide renown, the most eminent and illustrious title, is still not the first trophy to have existed. For the first 40 years after the competition’s creation, the victors received the “Jules Rimet” trophy. This trophy representing the first generation was named in homage to the person that initiated the World Cup. Created by French sculptor-engraver Abel Lafleur in 1946, it represented the Goddess of Victory holding an octagonal chalice above herself, the whole thing made of gold resting on a pedestal of fine gems. The “Jules Rimet” trophy had quite the eventful run. In 1966, the cup was stolen during the World Cup in England before being discovered by the sleuthhounds of Scotland Yard in a garden in the suburbs before the end of the competition. Brazil’s national team, having won the cup in 1958, 1962, and 1970, had the honor and the privilege, in line with FIFA’s rules, to leave with the cup in hand. However, the cup was once more abducted from the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro in 1983 by a group of hooded men, never to be found this time since all evidence points to it being melted down in the favelas.

The World Cup trophy, contrary to the former “Jules Rimet” trophy, is the permanent property of FIFA. Since 1974, the winning teams have been able to preserve the memory of their coronation with a gold plaque copy of the original trophy. For the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the trophy took off on a world tour to be displayed behind a glass case so that supporters could see and take photos with it. Nevertheless, only former world champions and world leaders have had the immense privilege of being able to touch it. On July 13th, the World Cup trophy will once more be brandished following the finale in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã Stadium. Next, it will begin its long 4 year wait before being taken out again for the next great world football assembly, fueling the dreams of every fan of the sport.

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