The World Cup trophy is the lamest prize in major sports
To the victor go the spoils, and this one’s a dud.
Standing a smidge over one foot in height with a weight of 13 pounds — 10 of which are pure gold — the winner of the world’s greatest sporting competition earns ... this:
That’s The World Cup Trophy. Literally, that’s the name. It’s not fashioned after a person, it’s just that generic name. I posit that it is the weakest trophy in major sports.
Fashioned in 1973 by Italian artist Silvio Gazzaniga, two rings of malachite stones are on the base. FIFA’s fact sheet quotes him thusly.
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.
For the world’s greatest competition, good heavens, that thing is weak. But this wasn’t the original.
This was:
That’s the Jules Rimet, named after FIFA’s third president and a depiction of Nike the greek goddess of victory. It was the trophy awarded for the early competitions. Brazil won it three times from 1958-1970, and per FIFA regulations at the time owned it outright after that. The original was stolen in the 1960s and found by a dog. Then it was stolen again in the 1980s and never recovered.
Gazzaniga’s trophy was first used in 1974, and has been used ever since.
It is lame.
Gazzaniga even has better trophies attributed to him.
They’re UEFA sanctioned competitions, but both the Europa League trophy and the UEFA Super Cup prizes are much bigger.
But FIFA’s gone all in on the the style of trophy for its staple competition.
Here’s the Confederations Cup on the left, basically a tune-up for the World Cup played 12 months before the main competition.
And here’s the Club World Cup. Sort of a jazzed-up version of The World Cup Trophy.
But the fact of the matter is, when you look across sporting competitions, The World Cup Trophy just leaves a lot to be desired.
Here’s Spain’s La Liga trophy.
England’s Premier League prize is regal in nature.
France’s Ligue 1 trophy even has mini versions of its cool-lookin’ circle thingy.
This is the Meisterschale, or champions shield given to the winners of the German Bundesliga.
And Italy’s Serie A trophy rounds out the major domestic league trophies in Europe, each of which wipe the floor with The World Cup Trophy.
Oh, and here’s the Champions League trophy which is about as sexy as it comes where competitions across the pond are concerned.
As for American trophies ...
You likely know what those look like. The Larry O’Brien:
The Stanley Cup:
The Vince Lombardi:
The Commissioner’s trophy:
And the WNBA trophy:
Those are all way better trophies than The World Cup Trophy with relatively less prestige. The global competition needs a trophy to match. Right now it doesn’t have one.
