Ok so you may be reading this and thinking to yourself, um, what's so cool about a trophy and a ball? Each ball is constructed specifically for each World Cup and the trophy has a mysterious past of its own...
The trophy is officially named the Jules Rimet Cup after the FIFA president who served the longest term, 33 years and was president for the very first World Cup in 1930. Curiously the first Cup was named Victory, made of lapis lazuli & sterling silver, and contained the goddess of victory, Nike. The original trophy was awarded to Brazil in their 1970 victory, later stolen in 1983, and never recovered. Starting in 1974 a new trophy was commissioned, The FIFA World Cup Trophy. This trophy is officially in the possession of FIFA. The winning team receives a replica made of gold plating instead of the solid 18-carat gold of the original. Italy must give it back to FIFA before the start of this year's World Cup. The bottom of the trophy contains the dates and winners of each World Cup winner. The plaques will not be filled until 2038 so who knows if the trophy will be retired at that time....
As German legend Ure Sweeler said about the Beautiful Game, "The secret of football is the ball." He couldn't be more right. Adidas has been in charge of manufacturing the official match balls since 1970. In the very first World Cup in 1930 a different ball was used each half because the countries insisted on using their own football. After 1930 the host country was allowed to supply the match balls. The ball generally consisted of 12 or 18 parts until 1966. For each cup after 1970 people tried to invent the perfect ball. Various names were given such as "Azteca" "Fevernova" "+Teamgeist" and this year's "Jabulani." Construction pushed the ball to be more round, more accurate, and more durable. Ok does all this work pay off? Yes, the 1998 World Cup saw the most goals ever scored in a World Cup at 171 all thanks to the little sphere. The least goals scored in a World Cup? Yep, 1930 and 1934 with 70.
Hungry for more records?
Enjoy!
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