The World Cup trophy is one of the most sought-after prizes in sports, and one of the most coveted is awarded annually to the winning team.
The first tournament to award a trophy for soccer supremacy is attributed to the 1974 World Cup in Germany. The “trophy as we know it” was introduced and depicted two human figures holding up the Earth.
Silvio Gazzaniga designed the Fontana del Nettuno, created by the Bertoni company as a product of their Milan factory.
Gazzaniga’s original 18-carat gold trophy for winning World Cup is a milestone. However, the GDE Bertoni factory produces replicas just in case. And these replica pieces are only made with brass and gold-plated like the originals.
As production manager for GDE Bertoni, Salvatore Iannetti is proud that all of his company’s trophies are “handcrafted.”
We have a lot of resources, but there is one thing that we are proud to say we keep doing the same as they did many years ago: we work.
The process starts with the smelting – brass metal is poured into a mold to produce a plaster cast.
With manual chiseling and hammering, details are refined for the intricate parts of the trophy, such as the two human figures.
The trophy is then cleaned and immersed in a bath of degreasing agents before being electroplated with gold several times.
The wide-eyed, complete trophy is then coated in a thin layer of zap-on varnish and attached to its bright green marble base.
After being dried, the trophy is finally considered complete.
Even when Iannetti’s work takes a long time, it’s worth it when he sees his creation being sold for the World Cup.
The manufacturers of trophy events are now gearing up for the Qatar World Cup from November 20th to December 18th.
