Despite a lot of controversies, Football remains the most popular as well as significant sport in the world. It’s probably the most expensive sports industry as well. You might not find fans of cricket or hockey everywhere but you can easily find fans of football. People who just don’t adore it but are crazy about it. Also, a lot of them must have also played it at some point of their life. But Professional players have something special about them.
The best players on the earth exist along with some extra ordinary and incredible rewards. Rewards keep players motivated and encourage them to show more enthusiasm. The level of this encouragement rises when the standard of an award gets high. This is why there are some top ranked football trophies offered to players with extensive hard work and outstanding playing skills. In this article, we are going to introduce you to such top Football Trophies.
1. FIFA World Cup Trophy
There’s no suspicion that it’s our number one award. FIFA World Cup is the football competition of highest level and winning the world cup trophy gives a sense of apparent pride and accomplishment. Nothing can beat the feeling a team gets while holding this football trophies surrounded by thousands of people. The World Cup trophy is not a pride accomplishment for just a team but an entire nation. Officially, the first FIFA World Cup was held in 1930 in Uruguay and the same nation became the recipient of this prestigious inaugural award. Since then, it has been awarded every four year except for 1942 and 1946 due to World War II.
2. UEFA Champions League
After the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA champions league has the highest number of audiences all around the world. Billions of spectators mark their presence of eyes on each competition held in FIFA. It’s a tournament held by European football confederation UEFA and every European nation is eager to win it. This trophy has an exceptional significance. Also, it’s nicknamed ‘big ears’ due to its large handles. You won’t be surprised to know that England teams have won this award 12 times and those teams include Manchester United, Aston Villa, Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
3. UEFA European Championship Trophy
Commonly known as ‘the Euros’, UEFA European Championship Trophy is called Henri Delaunay Trophy in honour of the UEFA’s First general secretary who proposed the ideal of European championship. So, ultimately the credit for this award to be here goes to him. It’s a silver coloured trophy of 60 centimetres which weighs 8 kilograms. Although a total of 24 teams participate in the Euros, only one team becomes the winner. The winner is also awarded gold medals to make their victory memorable while the rest of finalists get a commemorative plaque.
4. Copa America
You must have heard that Ronaldo won Copa America or any other legendary player won this but do you know what this trophy is? Copa America might be at fourth place in this list but it’s older than the world cup. First held in 1916, Copa America stands as the longest living continental Football competition. It is only for the teams associated with CONMEBOL and two other guests. Costa Rica, the United States and Mexico are frequent guest competitors. Most attention grabbing thing about this trophy is its exceptional beauty. It’s a silver designed trophy with an extremely pretty lid. The trophy is 77 cm tall and 9 kg heavier. It has a three story wooden base on which every winning team’s name is written.
5. FA Cup
Known for Giant killings, the FA Cup is organized by the Football Association and is the longest standing football association competition in the world. It was first held in July 1871 and since then it has been organized every year involving the teams from the Premier League. The winning team of this competition gets the cup. An interesting fact is that the original FA Cup was stolen in 1895 while in the possession of Aston Villa and since then it’s missing.
A duplicate football trophies was used to replace it at that time while later in 1911, it was replaced by a new designed trophy. Since then, the same design trophy passes on. A replica for the 1911 original trophy was created in 1992 to give to teams in case something happens to the original again. This Original trophy was valued at £1 Million on Antiques Roadshow in 2016. And the current FA Cup trophy is also quite expensive, made up of 925 silver. The 6.3 kg trophy took more than 250 hours to be done.
6. Premier league trophy
As you already know, the Premier League is one of the most popular and successful leagues in the world. And it is the most watched football tournament on this earth. What makes it more impactful is its popularity regardless of the fact that it only involves English teams.
Another astonishing fact is that despite having been held every year since 1992, only six Premier League teams have become Winners including Chelsea (5), Arsenal (3), Manchester United (13), Leicester City (1), Manchester City (4), and Blackburn Rovers (1). Just like other trophies it’s also made of sterling silver while it has a crown made up of gold. This Trophy is a great combination of different metals as its base is made of Malachite and a silver band with names of winning clubs written on it.
