Soon, the golden cup will be firmly grasped by Rodri or Lionel Messi – the captain of one of the teams.
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This will be the fourteenth time that the world football champions will lift this trophy. In the case of Argentina’s victory, it would be the first time that the same captain raises this planet’s champions’ cup for the second time.
The origins of the trophy, which became iconic over half a century, date back to the 1970s.
That year, the Brazilian national team, led by Pele, won the World Cup for the third time. According to the rule in effect at the time, the Brazilians earned the right to keep the then Jules Rimet trophy permanently, so a new trophy was needed for the World Cup.
FIFA announced a competition for this, with 53 participants from seven countries. But only one of them submitted not a sketch, but a full model of the trophy.
It was the Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga, who created the world champions’ trophy in his studio in Milan, in the Brera district.
The jury members evaluated the possibility to “touch” the new trophy, and ultimately their votes decided that the Italian’s work became the new symbol of the World Cup.
“When he started creating the trophy, he drew many different sketches, but finally settled on the idea that the trophy could be made up of two athlete bodies reaching upwards, holding the globe,” Giorgio, the son of S. Gazzaniga who died in 2016, told the news agency AP. Giorgio was still a teenager during the trophy’s creation process.
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According to him, the Italian sculptor wanted to embody three sports emotions in his work: athletes’ efforts, fans’ triumph, and the moment of victory.
“The trophy depicts the world, which is above everything, as well as the athletes’ efforts, their movement. The athletes’ bodies are rough, strong, as if depicting the suffering they endure fighting and struggling for victory,” said the sculptor’s son.
“The symbol of victory is expressed by the hands, which resemble wings of victory – this embodies not only the athletes’ but also the fans’ triumph,” said the Italian.
The trophy is only 36.5 cm tall and 13 cm in diameter (at the base), but weighs more than 6 kilograms. It consists of five kilograms of 18-carat gold and two layers of malachite.
However, only a few decades ago, chemist Martynas Poliakoff suggested that the trophy is hollow, because otherwise, considering the weight of the gold, it would weigh about 70-80 kg and would be unmanageable for football players. Later, this fact was confirmed by the trophy’s creator.
Despite this, considering only the material value of the trophy, it is estimated that the trophy could cost at current prices
