Jules Rimet Trophy

Lore & 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. The Brazilian team won the tournament for the third time in 1970, allowing them to keep the real trophy in perpetuity, as had been s

In Their Own Story

The museum was quiet on that December morning in 1983. A thin layer of dust settled over the glass case in the corner of the CBF building, where the golden figure of Nike stood in her eternal stride, her malachite base catching the pale light from the high windows. A guard had logged the door at 06:40. By 07:15, the case was open, the glass shards scattered across the marble floor, and the trophy was gone. The guard found only a faint trail of dust disturbed on the windowsill and a single, inexplicable smell of tobacco in a room where no one smoked. He called the police. He called his wife. He never spoke publicly about what he had seen in the empty case before the light changed, as if the goddess had simply stepped off her pedestal and walked out into the grey Rio morning, wings folded, laurel wreath in hand, vanishing into the crowds of Copacabana like a rumour that no one could quite confirm.

Reader's Guide

The Jules Rimet Trophy was the original trophy of the FIFA World Cup, used from 1930 to 1970. It was made of gold-plated sterling silver on a lapis lazuli base, stood 35 cm high, and weighed 3.8 kg. It depicted Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Brazil won the trophy permanently after their third title in 1970. The original trophy was stolen in 1983 and has never been recovered.

Did You Know?

• The Jules Rimet Trophy was originally called 'Victory' before being renamed in 1946.
• The trophy was stolen in 1966 but found seven days later by a dog named Pickles.
• The trophy was stolen again in 1983 and has never been recovered; it is widely believed to have been melted down.
• Only the original base of the Jules Rimet Trophy has been found, kept by FIFA in a basement in Zürich.