With the 2026 FIFA World Cup now underway across the United States, Mexico, and Canada, the trophy at the end of it all is once again in focus. For those who don’t know, the 2026 edition happens to be the first one to feature 48 teams and the first hosted across three nations simultaneously, marking a new chapter in the tournament’s already rich history. First held in 1930 and played every four years (except during World War II), the event was initiated by FIFA President Jules Rimet, and has grown from a 13-team invitational into a global spectacle where only eight nations have ever claimed the prizes. Since 1930, only two trophies have ever been awarded, and both have histories stranger than most people ever realise.
The first World Cup trophy was commissioned in 1928 by FIFA president Jules Rimet, who had spent years lobbying for a global football tournament. French sculptor Abel Lafleur produced a winged figure of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, holding an octagonal cup. Made from gold-plated sterling silver with a lapis lazuli base, it stood 35 centimetres tall and weighed 3.8 kilograms. Originally called Victory, it was renamed the Jules Rimet Trophy in 1946.
During the Second World War, Italian football official Ottorino Barassi removed the trophy from a bank vault and hid it in a shoe box under his bed to keep it from Nazi confiscation. It survived. In March 1966, four months before England hosted the World Cup, it was stolen from a public exhibition in London — bypassing six security guards — and held for a £15,000 ransom. Scotland Yard ran an undercover operation, arrested one man, but never found the trophy. A week later, a collie named Pickles sniffed out a newspaper-wrapped package under a hedge in South London and recovered it. Pickles was named Dog of the Year, invited to the celebration banquet when England won the tournament that summer, and starred in a film.
FIFA's rules allowed any nation winning three times to keep the trophy permanently. Brazil claimed that right in 1970. In 1983, the trophy was stolen from the Confederação Brasileira de Futebol headquarters in Rio de Janeiro and never recovered — believed to have been melted down for gold. The only surviving original component is the lapis lazuli base, now on display at the FIFA World Football Museum in Zurich.
With the Jules Rimet Trophy gone to Brazil, FIFA held a design competition ahead of the 1974 tournament. Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga's submission — two athletes rising to support the Earth at the moment of victory — was chosen from 53 entries across seven countries, in partnership with trophy manufacturer Stabilimento Artistico Bertoni of Milan. The trophy is made from 18-karat solid gold with two inlaid bands of malachite at the base, stands 36.8 centimetres tall, and weighs 6.175 kilograms. It is hollow — solid gold would make it unliftable at over 68 kilograms. Its current estimated value is upward of USD 20 million, approximately INR 167 crore.
No winning nation keeps the original, regardless of how many times they win. The original stays with FIFA. Each winning association receives a gold-plated replica — which is the version players lift, carry, and photograph. West Germany were the first winners in 1974. Brazil have lifted it the most times across both trophies, five in total. Argentina's 2022 victory in Qatar was their third title overall. The 2026 tournament will produce the 23rd world champion in the competition's history.