The World Cup is the trophy that football fans dream about more than any other.
The current trophy was first awarded in 1974.
This trophy replaced the original Jules Rimet Trophy.
Which football lover didn't dream at least once about lifting this cup themselves when they were a kid? Playing at the Fifa World Cup finals is a dream that does not come true for every player and even fewer manage to hold the trophy aloft. Winning this trophy means becoming a football legend and being remembered as a hero for the rest of your life.
From Diego Armando Maradona to Zinedine Zidane, via Ronaldo and Bastian Schweinsteiger – plenty of footballing legends have had the pleasure of lifting this trophy heavenward and by doing so, have gone down in history forever.
1974
In 1970, Brazil secured the third World Cup in their history in Mexico and took home the Jules Rimet Trophy once and for all. Originally designed for the international competition’s inaugural event in 1930, the cup was awarded definitively to the Brazilians after they won it three times.
After the Seleção’s triumph in 1970, Fifa announced a competition to choose a new trophy to be introduced in 1974, when the World Cup would be hosted by West Germany.
53
Fifty-three designs were submitted to the competition from which Fifa selected the creation of Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga. The trophy – still awarded to World Cup winners today – represents the joy of victory with two stylised players holding up the world.
“The world is a sphere so looks very similar to a football”, said the designer Gazzaniga.
36,8 x 13
Made of 18-carat solid gold, the trophy is 36.8cm high and weighs 6.175kg. The base, 13cm in diametre, consists of two semiprecious green malachite bands that have been restored several times, in addition to the application of a new layer of gold plating. After the most recent restoration in 2005, Fifa decided to stop lending the original trophy to the winning team.
Holders of the cup were previously allowed to display it in their federation’s trophy cabinet before returning it to Fifa for the next World Cup. Since 2006, the original cup has only been given to the team during the official prize-giving ceremony before being retrieved by Fifa employees. The winning country is then given an exact replica of the original.
12
The names of the 12 teams that have won the Fifa World Cup since 1974 are engraved on the bottom of the trophy’s base. It will be awarded for the 13th time in its history in Qatar.
3
Germany is the national side that has won this trophy the most times. The Germans have lifted the World Cup designed by Gazzaniga on three occasions: once in 1974, on home soil – the first time it was awarded – once at Italia 90, and most recently in 2014 in Brazil.
Unlike the Jules Rimet Trophy, this World Cup is not definitively handed over to three-time champions, otherwise, Germany would have already earned the right to keep it.
8-4
Eight European teams have won the trophy since 1974, compared with four South American teams.
The teams that have won the Fifa World Cup Trophy are:
3 wins – Germany (1974, 1990 and 2014)
2 wins – Argentina (1978 and 1986); Italy (1982 and 2006); Brazil (1994 and 2002); France (1998 and 2018)
1 win – Spain (2010)