Source :- PERTH NOW NEWS
A dog named Pickles once found the World Cup trophy in an English garden.
Iterations of football’s most treasured prize have been hidden, stolen, recovered and lost forever.
Heads of state – ranging from queens to dictators – have presented it.
Now, US President Donald Trump will present the 18-carat gold trophy, which weighs five kilograms and stands 36 centimetres high, to the winner of this year’s final.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino confirmed as much on Tuesday (AEST), that Trump would attend the final in New Jersey on July 20 and the pair would present the trophy together.
“We will be together with the president enjoying the final and handing the trophy to the winner, of course,” Infantino told Fox in the US.
Asked if he and Trump would make the presentation together, Infantino added: “Of course, we are together all the time.”
Heads of state have long featured on the big stage.
Queen Elizabeth II presented the trophy to England captain Bobby Moore in 1966.
Argentina’s dictator Jorge Videla handed it to Daniel Passerella in 1978.
In 2018, Russian president Vladimir Putin was on the stage under an umbrella when France captain Hugo Lloris received the trophy from Infantino in teeming rain.
In 2022, the Emir of Qatar and Infantino together presented Lionel Messi with football’s biggest prize.
While the real thing is presented on the day, the winning team is ultimately given a replica.
The actual trophy is kept under guard at FIFA headquarters in Zurich.
History shows it is easy to understand why.
The inaugural trophy, won by Uruguay at the first World Cup in 1930, depicted Nike, the Goddess of Victory, holding an octagonal vessel in her outstretched hands.
This trophy was won by Italy in 1934 and 1938.
During World War II, Italian sports official Ottorino Barassi took the trophy from a Rome bank vault and hid it in a shoebox under his bed, keeping it safe from Nazi clutches.
In 1946, the ‘Victory’ trophy was named the Jules Rimet Trophy, after the former FIFA President.
In 1966, mere months before England won the World Cup, the trophy was stolen while it was on an exhibition tour of the country – then found again.
A mongrel dog named Pickles was sniffing in a hedge, and found the trophy wrapped in newspaper.
Brazil won it for a third time in 1970, and with it, the right to keep it in perpetuity.
But in 1983, the Jules Rimet trophy was stolen and this time, never recovered. Police believe it was most likely melted down.
But the modern day trophy, designed in 1974, of two players holding up the world, goes on.
