The Strange History of the Stolen FIFA World Cup Trophy

Stolen. Found. Stolen. And reborn. The FIFA World Cup Trophy has a surprising and compelling history rich in twists and turns.

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Every quadrennium, the world comes together to watch “the beautiful game” played by passionate athletes at the highest level, representing their nation’s pride. And every quadrennium, one of the most iconic pieces of sporting silverware is dusted off and sent on a journey around the globe, eagerly awaiting the moment it is hoisted by the next set of deserving hands.

By far the most popular and most watched sport in the world, football is more than mere athleticism. It defines culture, national identity, communal ties and global dialogue, and the reward exchanged for countless hours of training and metaphorical and literal blood, sweat and tears is the incomparable FIFA World Cup Trophy.

It was once hidden in a shoebox for more than 10 years, then looted and lost, then found and kept in the possession of a nation whose record-breaking number of FIFA World Cup wins remains undefeated. Eventually pinched again and reinvented for a new era of international football, the FIFA World Cup Trophy has witnessed a lifetime’s worth of events. Its history rivals that of any nail-biting crime fiction. Its design propelled its sculptor to international fame and success. And yet, the story of the FIFA World Cup Trophy does not start with its creation in the 1970s, but with its revered predecessor.

“Its history rivals that of any nail-biting crime fiction.”

The Original Trophy

In 1930, the first FIFA World Cup took place in Uruguay, where the original trophy—then known under the moniker “Victory”—was awarded to the host nation. French sculptor Abel Lafleur took inspiration from the Niké of Samothrace monument at the Louvre for his creation: the winged figure supported an octagonal cup and bore the clean lines and geometric symmetries of the art deco movement, standing on a pedestal of lapis lazuli and gold plaques that featured the engraved names of the winning countries of each FIFA World Cup edition.

“Victory” lived through tumultuous times. After the trophy was claimed by Italy in 1938—the nation’s second win in as many tournaments—it spent more than a decade in hiding during the Second World War amid fears of being plundered. Its unlikely saviour? Ottorino Barassi, the then-vice-president of FIFA, who surreptitiously took it from its bank vault in Rome and quietly kept the trophy hidden in a shoebox under his bed until the conflict ended and the World Cup returned to its regularly scheduled programming in 1950.

By then, “Victory” had been renamed in honour of FIFA president Jules Rimet to commemorate his 25th year in office; he passed the torch on to his successor in 1954 after serving for 33 years.

 

The Theft That Made Headlines

Despite the change of name to the Jules Rimet Trophy, the silverware’s turbulent history continued. Four months before the 1966 FIFA World Cup in England, a thief made off with it when it had been the subject of a public exhibition at London’s Methodist Central Hall. While Scotland Yard searched high and low, the criminal had other ideas: holding the trophy hostage in exchange for a GBP £15,000 ransom.

A high-stakes exchange involving an undercover agent and counterfeit money was arranged in front of Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge stadium, but the thief sensed something was afoot during the handover, leading to a police chase and an arrest. He later admitted that he didn’t steal the trophy himself, but was merely acting as a middleman for an individual higher up the food chain.

“A high-stakes exchange involving an undercover agent and counterfeit money was arranged.”

During all of this, the whereabouts of the Jules Rimet Trophy remained unknown—until the appearance of a pair of heroes. David Corbett and his dog Pickles made headlines when the black-and-white collie sniffed out a shocking discovery just one week after the theft. While on a walk in the Beulah Hill neighbourhood of South London, Pickles came across a parcel underneath a car. It was the stolen trophy, packaged in newspaper and string. Corbett restored the silverware, and England got to lift it upon defeating West Germany in the 1966 final.

Brazil, Disappearance and Reinvention

In 1970, the Jules Rimet Trophy finally found a permanent home in Brazil. As the first team to win three FIFA World Cup tournaments, the South American nation was given the honour of keeping the original trophy. However, this would not be the last of its misadventures. During the post-match celebrations, the Brazilian team lost a section of the trophy; it was in the possession of a spectator and luckily recovered the same night.

But in 1983, the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) headquarters in Rio de Janeiro was broken into, and this was the end of the Jules Rimet Trophy, never recovered. Replicas, commissioned after the 1966 and 1983 thefts, still exist, but the sole original component belonging to the Abel Lafleur sculpture is the lapis lazuli base, which had been swapped for a taller one in 1954.

With the Jules Rimet Trophy awarded in perpetuity to Brazil, FIFA needed another piece of silverware to hand out at its World Cup tournaments ahead of 1974. A competition was organised, entries were collected. Out of 53 submissions from seven countries, Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga’s design—created in partnership with trophy and medal manufacturing company Stabilimento Artistico Bertoni, now GDE Bertoni—made the cut, becoming the FIFA World Cup Trophy we know today.

Made of gold and malachite, this reimagined prize depicts two human figures reaching upwards in a spiralling motion, “receiving” the Earth in their hands as a representation of “two athletes at the stirring moment of victory,” according to Gazzaniga, bottling that excitement and emotion into a pose that expresses achievement, elation and intensity.

The sight of players hoisting the 36.8cm-tall statuette sky-high has become a familiar one at World Cup finals, but interestingly, that’s only possible because the trophy is hollow. If it were solid gold, it is estimated it would weigh a whopping 70kg.

A Trophy Under Lock and Key

In 2006, perhaps because of the Jules Rimet Trophy’s numerous trials and tribulations, FIFA decided that its successor, the FIFA World Cup Trophy, would no longer be kept by any one country. Instead of being held by the winning nation for four years, the precious original makes a quadrennial appearance at the final of each World Cup—to be hoisted high by the winning team in celebration—after which it is swiftly returned to FIFA to be kept under strict supervision.

It leaves its vault solely for special occasions, such as ceremonial or promotional events, and even then, touching the original is reserved for a select group of people, including former FIFA World Cup winners.

Nowadays, the permanent prize that teams tote home with them is a gold-plated brass replica, known as the FIFA World Cup Winners’ Trophy. More than five decades after crafting the original, specialists and craftspeople at GDE Bertoni continue to painstakingly hand-manufacture one copy of the FIFA World Cup Winners’ Trophy for each tournament, undergoing a meticulous process to produce an exact copy. The firm also creates the accompanying gold medals, engraved with a relief of the instantly recognisable trophy design.

The Art of Making a Trophy

Football fans can rapidly identify the FIFA World Cup Trophy when it is pictured, but what is less known about such sporting silverware is the amount of work it takes to produce them. No two events or clients are ever the same, yet the blueprint of a successful design should reference the event, exude gracefulness and be thought-provoking, says Richard Fox of Fox Silver, a United Kingdom-based silverware designer and producer which has been manufacturing trophies for major global motorsports events for more than four decades.

Fox Silver crafts as many as 200 awards per year: the Formula 1 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Trophy and the Formula 1 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix Trophy, both presented to Max Verstappen, are prized examples of the studio’s expansive portfolio of works.

Fox says a good trophy needs to evoke “a desire to win it and have an impact on the event, the winners and the public,” creating emotional resonance. It should also “reflect the importance of the event.” The use of precious metals and stones, or other exotic materials, doesn’t hurt either, he adds.

It is a time-intensive process, taking anywhere from 12 to 16 weeks, depending on the customer and decision-making involved. Fox starts with his homework—he creates mood boards, researching the event’s history and where it is being held, as well as other influences. These he interprets into pencil sketches which he refines digitally.

A team of highly skilled goldsmiths, engineers, CAD designers and modelmakers then creates the trophies in precious metals and other materials. Manual craftsmanship is important, but so are cutting-edge technologies, which, when used in tandem, “allow me to create remarkable forms which were probably economically unworkable a decade ago,” Fox says.

Creating a timeless trophy worthy of a world-class event is not without its challenges, he notes, but the achievement is rewarding. “Sometimes, the deadline can be very short, and while this puts pressure on delivering to an international event with all the associated import/export documents and duties, we do not compromise on the design or quality of the trophy.”

The Trophy on Tour

Much like the Olympic torch, and the teams who descend upon the host nation for each FIFA World Cup edition, the FIFA World Cup Trophy travels, and not only to competitions. It’s currently on tour with Coca-Cola ahead of the 2026 tournament, jetting around the globe in its own branded aircraft and making stops before reaching its final destination.

A tour comprising 30 countries, 75 stops and more than 150 days started in Saudi Arabia on January 3, before continuing on to Egypt, Turkey, Austria, India, Bangladesh, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and South Africa in the same month.

Following appearances in Côte d’Ivoire, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Algeria, France, Guatemala and Honduras in February, the FIFA World Cup Trophy is expected to complete a South America excursion through Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia in the coming months, though specific details of the route are still under wraps.

What is known is that the FIFA World Cup Trophy will eventually make its way to Mexico, Canada, and the United States, where the FIFA World Cup 2026 final will take place on July 19 at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Which national team from the 48 participating countries will lift the prized silverware this summer is anyone’s guess, but suffice to say, they will be holding a priceless piece of history in their hands.