--- title: "The man who made the World Cup trophy, and why Spain does not get to keep it" description: "Silvio Gazzaniga, a Milanese sculptor trained as a goldsmith, beat more than 50 rival designs to replace a trophy that had been given away permanently and was later stolen. The object Spain lifted on Sunday went back into FIFA's keeping the same night." category: "Sports" category_url: https://herald.la/category/sports author: "Naomi Fields" published: 2026-07-20T07:04:00.000Z updated: 2026-07-20T07:04:00.000Z canonical: https://herald.la/article/the-man-who-made-the-world-cup-trophy-and-why-spain-does-not-get-to-keep-it tags: ["world-cup", "design", "silvio-gazzaniga", "jules-rimet", "sports-history"] --- # The man who made the World Cup trophy, and why Spain does not get to keep it Silvio Gazzaniga, a Milanese sculptor trained as a goldsmith, beat more than 50 rival designs to replace a trophy that had been given away permanently and was later stolen. The object Spain lifted on Sunday went back into FIFA's keeping the same night. The trophy Spain lifted at MetLife Stadium on Sunday exists because the previous one was given away. ## Why a new trophy was needed Under the old rules, a country that won three World Cups kept the Jules Rimet Trophy permanently. Brazil did that in 1970, and the prize designed by the French sculptor Abel Lafleur, showing Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, left the competition for good. Its later history is not happy. The trophy had already been stolen once, in England in 1966, and recovered by a dog named Pickles. It was [taken again from the Brazilian football confederation's headquarters in December 1983](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/made-fifa-world-cup-trophy-070633449.html) and has never been found. It is generally assumed to have been melted down. FIFA therefore needed a replacement, and opened the design to competition. ## The sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga was a Milanese sculptor who had trained as a goldsmith and spent his career making medals and ceremonial pieces, working with the Bertoni studio in Milan. His design was chosen from [more than 50 submissions](https://www.silviogazzaniga.com/en/), and was first presented at the 1974 tournament in West Germany, where Franz Beckenbauer became the first captain to raise it. He described the intention plainly. The two figures rising from the base are athletes at the moment of exertion, their arms reaching upward to hold the Earth, and the shape they make was meant to echo the wings of victory. The [Euronews account of his work](https://www.euronews.com/culture/2026/07/18/who-made-the-fifa-world-cup-trophy-the-story-of-milan-sculptor-silvio-gazzaniga), drawing on his family, describes an artist interested in the strain of the body rather than in triumph as a smooth idea. Gazzaniga died in 2016, at 95. He had watched his object become the most recognizable prize in world sport across four decades, and was honored in Milan with the Ambrogino d'Oro. He also designed the UEFA Cup and Intercontinental Cup trophies, neither of which anyone outside the game could sketch from memory. ## What it is made of A persistent belief holds that the trophy is solid gold. It is not, and the arithmetic makes the reason obvious. The trophy stands about 36.5 centimeters and weighs roughly 6.175 kilograms, of which around 5 kilograms is 18-carat gold, [according to World Soccer Talk](https://worldsoccertalk.com/world-cup/is-the-world-cup-trophy-real-gold-weight-value-and-rules-explained/). The base is two rings of green malachite, the stone chosen for the color of a pitch. Cast solid at that volume, in that alloy, it would weigh somewhere between 70 and 80 kilograms. No captain would be lifting anything. The trophy is hollow, which is why a winning team can hoist it one-handed. ## The part nobody mentions on the night Spain does not keep it. Since 1974 the original has remained the property of FIFA, and the champions receive a gold-plated replica to take home. The real one goes back into FIFA's possession. The rule exists precisely because of what happened to the Jules Rimet Trophy: an object handed permanently to a winner, then stolen from a federation's headquarters and lost. The current arrangement guarantees the trophy outlives the teams that win it, at the cost of the winners never actually owning the thing they are pictured holding. Spain's players lifted it on Sunday night, were photographed with it, and gave it back. ## Sources - [Who made the FIFA World Cup trophy? The story of Milan sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga](https://www.euronews.com/culture/2026/07/18/who-made-the-fifa-world-cup-trophy-the-story-of-milan-sculptor-silvio-gazzaniga) - [Who made the FIFA World Cup trophy?](https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/made-fifa-world-cup-trophy-070633449.html) - [Is the World Cup trophy real gold? Weight, value and rules explained](https://worldsoccertalk.com/world-cup/is-the-world-cup-trophy-real-gold-weight-value-and-rules-explained/) - [Silvio Gazzaniga, the Milanese artist behind the football World Cup trophy](https://www.silviogazzaniga.com/en/)