Jules Rimet Trophy
The original FIFA World Cup trophy, made of gold-plated silver and lapis lazuli, awarded from 1930 to 1970.
The original prize of the FIFA World Cup, the Jules Rimet Trophy, was first awarded in 1930. Initially called "Victory," it was commonly referred to as the World Cup or Coupe du Monde until 1946, when it was renamed for Jules Rimet, the FIFA president who spearheaded the competition's creation in 1929. French sculptor Abel Lafleur designed the trophy, which was crafted from gold-plated sterling silver set on a base of lapis lazuli. Its design featured a decagonal cup supported by a winged figure of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. The trophy stood 35 centimeters tall and weighed 3.8 kilograms. In 1954, the base was replaced with a taller version to allow space for engraving the names of additional winning teams.
Quick Facts
- First
- 1930 (Jules Rimet Trophy); 1974 (FIFA World Cup Trophy)
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- FIFA
Facts from the source article.
Background
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. 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. 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 since has repeated the gesture.
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. 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 collie dog named Pickles. As a security measure, the (English) Football Association secretly manufactured a replica of the trophy for use in exhibitions rather than the original.
This replica was used on occasions until the original trophy had to be handed back to FIFA for the next competition in 1970. 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. The high auction price, 10 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. 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.
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