President of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta with Brazilian football legend, Juliano Belleti in State House holding the FIFA world cup trophy(State House Kenya) Twitter
The FIFA world cup trophy is arguably the most prestigious and expensive trophy ever in football and other tournaments. Have you ever wondered how worthy it is. The trophy is currently in exhibition around the world before the world cup games begin. According to reports, the original trophy was called the Jules Rimet trophy and it featured the goddess of victory.
The original Jules Rimet trophy had a history of fascinations, during the world war 2, it was hidden in a shoebox under a bed. Later on, as sourced from the Wikipedia, the Jules Rimet trophy was stolen in 1966 prior to the kickoff of 1966 FIFA world cup in England. It was later discovered by a dog named pickles. According to historyexra.com, after the trophy had been stolen for seven days, a collie by the name pickles alerted it's owner, David Corbett, to a newspaper-wrapped packet in the hedge of near his home in South London. The dog had sniffed the world cup and it was later commended and earned a cult.
According to The Guardian, the Jules Rimet trophy was later stolen while on display in Brazil. The trophy had been presented to the Brazilian Sports Confederation after winning the 1970 world cup tournament against Italy. The trophy was then placed on the 3rd floor of the federations office in Rio's Rua Da Alfandega. On the evening of 19-20 December 1983 a nightwatchman was overpowered by thieves who seemingly didn't care about celebrating Christmas. The plot to steal the trophy is believed to be farcically opportunistic rather than meticulously planned by an International syndicate group since it was planned in a bar while the thieves were on their drinking spree.
The thieves opened the wooden frame of the bullet-proofed glassed display of the trophy and stole the trophy. There was a replica of the trophy in the box but the thieves left it and took off with the original trophy. The trophy went missing never to be found again.
In a book titled, The Theft Of The Jules Rimet Tophy by Martin Atherton, he writes that the federation's president, Giulite Coutinho made a nationwide appeal to all Brazilians to help recover the trophy by saying, "The spiritual value of the trophy if far much greater than it's material worth." And that the thieves had "no feeling of patriotism." The trophy was priced at $50,000 and it was made from gold plated silver.
Photo: FIFA World Cup Trophy
The current trophy was made in 1974, it is coated with 18 carats of gold mounted on two layers of malachite. The trophy is priced at $20million which so high that the winners can only be given a gold-plated replica to take home. It would be too expensive to make a new trophy to award the winning country on each world cup final. According to Billionbypost.co.uk, the FIFA world cup trophy is made of 18 carats of gold(750 fineness) which is equivalent to 4,927 grammes of pure gold. It weighs 6.175kgs and measures 36.8cm high by 12.5cm wide.
This is a trophy that everyone desires to touch or take a snapshot with if not getting close to it.
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Also leave a comment to let us know how you feel about the trophy and if you would love to get close to touching it.
Content created and supplied by: BrianBillion (via Opera News )
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