Lionel Messi achieved it in 2022. Kylian Mbappé did it four years earlier. Many of soccer’s greatest names, including Diego Maradona, Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Zinedine Zidane, have also lifted the World Cup. But where does the trophy go once they put it back down?

Unlike other high-profile tournaments, the winners do not get to keep the gold FIFA World Cup Trophy for any length of time. Players are certainly not afforded the chance to take it home for a few days, as sometimes happens in other sports. Instead, each member of the winning team, along with the runners-up and third-place finishers, receives a medal.

Instead, the triumphant federation receives a bronze replica plated in gold, while the real trophy is quickly whisked away to FIFA headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.

In general, the only times you can catch a glimpse of the trophy out in the wild are during the traditional World Cup Trophy Tour in the weeks leading up to the tournament, at the opening game and at the final.

A trophy with a chaotic past

Why is security around the FIFA World Cup Trophy so tight? It mainly comes down to experience.

The FIFA World Cup Trophy is not the first trophy awarded to tournament winners. Before it came the Jules Rimet Trophy, named after the former FIFA president who first proposed the World Cup.

The Jules Rimet Trophy led an eventful life. First awarded in 1930, it was kept in a shoebox under the bed of Ottorino Barassi, FIFA’s Italian vice president, during the Second World War after Italy won both the 1934 and 1938 editions.

Ahead of the 1966 World Cup in England, the trophy was stolen from a display cabinet in London before being found several days later in a garden hedge by Pickles, arguably the most famous dog in soccer history.

Brazil changed everything

After winning its third World Cup in 1970, Brazil was allowed to keep the trophy permanently, leading FIFA to introduce the current World Cup Trophy in 1974.

But even then, the Jules Rimet Trophy was not safe. In 1983, it was stolen from the Brazilian Football Confederation headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, minus the original stone base, which FIFA later discovered by chance in its own basement in 2015.

What happened to the rest of the trophy, however, has never been established.

World soccer’s governing body is not taking any chances with the current trophy.

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