The story behind the names of the World Cup trophy
In the world of sports, no legend is more interesting than the story behind the soccer World Cup. This victory ship has been around for almost a hundred years and has an intriguing past. The Soccer World Cup has endured through generations of soccer fans and will remain a symbol of the greatest challenge and triumph in sportsmanship for generations to come. Here’s a bit of the history behind the soccer World Cup and how it got its various names.
Beginning in 1930, the Soccer World Cup became known as the “Jules Rimet Trophy,” named for the man who was the first president of the International Federation of Football Association (FIFA). It was a beautiful one-of-a-kind trophy designed by French sculptor Abel Lafleur, who finished it in gold-plated sterling silver on a base of lapis lazuli (blue natural stone). The design included a representation of the ancient Greek goddess of victory “Nike”, which is why it was originally called “Victoria”. Over time, the award was engraved with the names of the nine winners of the world championship soccer matches. In 1946, the trophy was renamed the “Jules Rimet Trophy”, but was also called the “Coupe du Monde”.
But that’s not where the World Cup story ends. During World War II, fearing that it would be stolen by Nazi German troops who had occupied the region where it was stored, the then Italian-born FIFA president, Dr. Barassi, hid “Victoria” under his bed. in a shoebox for several years. Despite his heroic efforts to preserve the trophy, in 1966 the trophy disappeared while on display in England in a public display at Westminster Central Hall. It was found seven days later, buried under a tree in a suburban garden in South Norwood, a good distance away, dug up by a little dog named “Pickles”. To this day, no one knows why it was stolen or who was to blame for the robbery.
In 1970, the trophy was won for the third time by the Brazilian soccer team and was stored in the country’s capital, Rio de Janeiro. However, it was once again the subject of a robbery in 1973 when it disappeared and was never seen again by anyone, including football fans. Rumors say that; the trophy was melted down for its precious metals. However, we will never know for sure how Victory found out about her untimely escape from the world of sports.
That’s not the end of the World Cup adventure in soccer’s hallowed halls of fame. In 1974, a new World Cup trophy was created to replace the old one and presented to the captain of the winning West German team, Franz Beckenbauer. The design of the new trophy was chosen from more than fifty designs that experts from all seven continents submitted to FIFA. The winning design is an 18K solid gold rotating statue with a two-row malachite base. It was designed by Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga who has designed several other world famous sports trophies for football and baseball.
Today the World Cup is known simply as the FIFA World Cup Trophy, but football fans still sometimes refer to it as “Victory” after the previous trophy. Only five countries have won it so far, the most recent being Italy, but there are enough spaces to engrave the names of the winning teams on its base until the year 2038.