Footballbeing one of the most-watched sport globally, has several competitions for lovers of the sport to enjoy. Nevertheless, many competitions come with trophies and grand rewards for victors. Today we will discuss the top 5 most expensive football trophies in the world.
Top 5 most expensive football trophies in the world
5. BALLON D’OR TROPHY – $805,439
The Ballon d’or trophy is the most coveted individual award in football; it is worth a little over half a million Euros. Organised by French news magazine ‘France Football’, who chooses the best player of the calendar year based on voting by football journalists, coaches and captains of the national team. Player with the highest vote is presented with an award during the award night.
Argentine captain and playmaker, Lionel Messi is the highest recipient of the trophy, a golden ball.
4. THE ENGLISH F.A CUP TROPHY – $1.18 Million
The Football Association Challenge Cup is the oldest national football competition in the world. Generally known as the FA Cup, it is an annual knockout football competition in men’s domestic English football. Since 2015, it has been known as The Emirates FA Cup after its headline sponsor.
The cup is only lent to the winner of the competition by the FA, under the current (2015–16) rules and it must be returned on or before March 1st, earlier if given seven days’ notice. Traditionally, the holders had the Cup until the following year’s presentation, although more recently the trophy has been taken on publicity tours by the FA in between finals.
The current version is a duplicate of the 2014 design, which weighs 6.3 kilograms of sterling silver. This magnificent piece of silverware took English luxury firm Thomas Lyte 250 hours to create.
3. EUROPA LEAGUE TROPHY – $4.5 Million
The UEFA Europa League Trophy is the heaviest of all UEFA silverware. Listing the scales at 15kg, it is 65cm high, 33cm wide and 23cm deep. The trophy is a silver cup which sits on a yellow marble plinth; the lower part of the sculpture symbolises the stylised footballers and is surmounted by a hand-embossed slab.
It was designed and crafted by Silvio Gazzaniga, the same author of FIFA World Cup, who worked in the Bertoni workshop in Milan.
The Europa League is the second-tier competition of European club football, ranking below the UEFA Champions League and above the UEFA Europa Conference League.
2. COPA LIBERTADORES TROPHY – $8.5 Million
The Copa Libertadores trophy, is a trophy awarded annually by CONMEBOL to the football club that wins the Copa Libertadores. It is the most prestigious club competition in South American football and one of the most watched events in the world, broadcast in 135 nations worldwide.
Copa Libertadores winners keep the real trophy in their possession. It stays so until the draw and seeding of the next Copa Libertadores begins. Before the proceedings happen, the club president of the defending champion will return the trophy to the president of CONMEBOL and a replica trophy is awarded to the winning club. Winning clubs are also permitted to make exact replicas of their own. A club gets to keep the trophy indefinitely if they win three consecutive tournaments.
1. FIFA WORLD CUP – $20 Million
The FIFA World cup is the most prestigious competition in the world, as such, it isn’t startling that the FIFA World Cup is the most costly not only in football but in all sports. The trophy was created in 1974 by prominent Italian artist Silvio Gazzaniga and is awarded to the winning team at the World Cup tournament that takes place every four years.
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The first trophy, originally named Victory, but later renamed in honour of FIFA president Jules Rimet, was made of gold plated sterling silver and lapis lazuli and depicted Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. Brazil won the trophy outright in 1970, prompting the commissioning of a replacement. The original Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen in 1983 and never recovered.
The subsequent trophy, called the “FIFA World Cup Trophy”, was introduced in 1974. Made of 18 karat gold with bands of malachite on its base, it stands 36.8 centimetres high and weighs 6.1 kilograms (30,875 carats). The trophy has the engraving “FIFA World Cup” on its base. It depicts two human figures holding up the Earth.