{"id":6961,"date":"2026-07-19T23:54:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T23:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=6961"},"modified":"2026-07-19T23:54:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T23:54:49","slug":"is-the-world-cup-trophy-made-of-gold-10-facts-about-soccers-ultimate-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/?p=6961","title":{"rendered":"Is The World Cup Trophy Made Of Gold? 10 Facts About Soccer&#039;s Ultimate Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            POPULAR SEARCHES\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"subnav-title ff-ffc bold fs-23 lh-25 uc pd-b-10\">\n            BROWSE BY\n          <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>What do <i>you<\/i> know about soccer&#8217;s ultimate prize, the FIFA World Cup Trophy?<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>It&#8217;s one of the hardest trophies to conquer \u2013 only eight countries have ever won it \u2013 Brazil (five times), Germany (four), Italy (four), Argentina (three), France (two), Uruguay (two), Spain (two) and England (once).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>But the story of the actual trophy (and the two versions of it that have existed since the inaugural tournament in 1930) is filled with some interesting facts. Let&#8217;s dive in:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Michael Regan &#8211; FIFA\/FIFA via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Paired with two layers of green malachite on the base, the trophy&#8217;s total weight of 6.142 kilograms (about 13.6 pounds). While the inside of the trophy is hollow, it has incredible value based on gold content alone. The gold content equates to just over five kilograms (nearly 11 pounds) of pure gold \u2013 which would be around $550,000 as of April 2026. \u00a0Of course, no one would dare sell one of sports&#8217; most sought-after trophies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>Jules Rimet, president of FIFA, presents the first World Cup trophy to Dr. Paul Jude, the president of the Uruguayan Football Association. (Photo by Keystone\/Getty Images)<\/span> <!--&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The trophy that we see today isn\u2019t the original. The first commissioned was the Jules Rimet trophy (named after FIFA's first president), made of gold-plated sterling silver and consisted of a ten-sided cup, supported by a winged figure representing Nike, the ancient Greek goddess of victory. After Brazil won its third title in 1970, the team kept that trophy, leading FIFA to commission what is now the \"FIFA World Cup Trophy\" that we now see. The version we now see was first lifted in 1974 by hosts West Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>Throughout World War II, FIFA\u2019s Vice President, Ottorino Barassi, secretly took out the trophy from one of Rome\u2019s bank vaults. Why? To prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, or in their eyes, the hands of occupying forces. He then hid the trophy in a shoebox under his bed for the remainder of the war.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span>Pickles the dog helped find the trophy, months before England won it (Getty).<\/span> --><\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>In March 1966, the Jules Rimet trophy was taken from an exhibition in London. Miraculously, a dog named Pickles sniffed out a package wrapped in newspaper while on a walk with his owner. The trophy happened to be sitting there and Pickles became a hero to fans across the world. \u00a0England won its first and only men&#8217;s title months later \u2013 and Pickles was invited to the celebration banquet as a reward.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The Jules Rimet trophy was again stolen in 1983 while displayed at the Brazilian Football Confederation headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil then commissioned a replacement replica of the trophy, with only one section of the original ever officially recovered.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>After the 1966 theft, England&#8217;s Football Association created a replica trophy that would be used for public exhibition while the real one was kept safe. In 1997, FIFA bought the replica at an auction for $400,000. That replica is now at England&#8217;s National Football Museum in Manchester.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Dursun Aydemir\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/span> <!--&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The country that wins the whole tournament takes home an entirely different version of the World Cup trophy (known as the World Cup Winners' Trophy). The main one is housed at the FIFA Museum, which is located in Zurich, Switzerland.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span> --><\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The pate at the base of the trophy gets removed after each winner, with it going to the FIFA Museum. A new one is added to the trophy with the name of the latest winner joining the previous champions in a spiral arrangement to accommodate future winners.<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by Alex Grimm\/Bongarts\/Getty Images)<\/span> <!--&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>After their 2014 World Cup win, Germany partied in Berlin so hard that they managed to damage the trophy. Wolfgang Niersbach, the President of the German FA, admitted that a small piece of the trophy was chipped off. Luckily, it was the winner\u2019s trophy, not the original that remains in Switzerland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span>\u00a0(Photo by AMA\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/span> --><\/p>\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>The main trophy does occasionally travel but is carefully handled by agents to ensure there is no damage when in transport. When it does hit the road, it is for events such as the World Cup Trophy Tour or the World Cup draw. It also makes an appearance at the final.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>(Photo by FRANCK FIFE\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/span> <!--&gt;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"ff-h fs-16 lh-1pt6 mg-b-15 article-content\" data-v-a2155f14>There is an unofficial custom that players follow in which one should never touch the trophy before the final. However, the real rules are actually much stricter: only World Cup\u00a0<i>winners\u00a0<\/i>and heads of state can touch the authentic gold trophy with their bare hands. Everyone else is required to wear gloves.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY What do you know about soccer&#8217;s ultimate prize, the FIFA World Cup Trophy? It&#8217;s one of the hardest trophies to conquer \u2013 only eight countries have ever won it \u2013 Brazil (five times), Germany (four), Italy (four), Argentina (three), France (two), Uruguay (two), Spain (two) and England (once). But the story [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}