Football Facts

Winning the World Cup is the dream of every footballer, but manufacturing the trophy is also a proud profession for the Italian-based company and its employees. GDE Bertoni, an Italian company located in a small town about 30 minutes from Milan, has been working for nearly 10 years in the field of manufacturing trophies and medals for world football competitions, including the luxury “Mrs” World Cup trophy. The World Cup trophies manufactured by the company are in fact only gold-plated copies of the original World Cup trophy owned by FIFA. The original trophy is 36.8 cm tall and weighs approximately 6.2 kg. Petro, one of the company's mining craftsmen, made the World Cup replica that the French team won in 1998. Petro stressed that he is proud of the honor of making World Cup replicas because he considers them pieces of art. Pietro says: "The most difficult part of the work is sculpting the bronze model. You have to hold a magnifying glass and carefully examine every detail. I polish the trophy again and again until it is perfect. The goal is to try to make the final copies of these valuable trophies exactly similar to the original piece." Read more on Euronews: Reporters were subjected to sexual harassment at the World Cup in Russia! A Russian paints a huge mural for his wife on the occasion of the World Cup in Russia FIFA volunteers dance to the tunes of the official anthem of the 2018 World Cup The Italy national football team did not qualify for the 2018 World Cup, which was a huge disappointment for Italian fans, including employees at GDE Bertoni, which makes the prestigious award. The original piece of the World Cup is made of 75 percent pure, 18-carat gold, and dates back to 1974. As for the copy that is made in Italy and will be delivered to the winning team of the competition in Russia, its value is only 150,000 euros. Undoubtedly, the value of the copy is much less than its symbolic value. The team that wins the 2018 World Cup will receive a copy of the original World Cup currently in Mexico before the “Lady Trophy” returns to FIFA headquarters and from there to the defending champion team for this year’s tournament.