Silvio Gazzaniga

• 1. Introduction

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  Silvio Gazzaniga worked for a company called the Stabilimento Artistico Bertoni. There, he created the FIFA World Cup Trophy, the trophy raised by a team captain at the end of every World Cup final. That single design earned him what the record calls worldwide artistic fame. Yet his path to it began decades earlier, in Milan's art schools, where he trained as a goldsmith and jeweller. What carried a craftsman of medals and cups to the center of world football? And once the applause for that one design faded, what did the rest of his working life look like?

• 2. An Apprentice Goldsmith

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  Milan was where Silvio Gazzaniga was born, on the 23rd of January 1921, and where he later trained to become a sculptor. He studied at the city's art schools, since Milan served as the capital of Lombardy. During the avant-garde period of the 1940s, he attended the Humanitarian School of Applied Art and the High School of Art at the Sforzesco Castle. There he specialised as a goldsmith and jeweller. World War II disrupted those early years, but afterward he began his career shaping medals, cups, and decorations. At the end of 1953, he started collaborating with Bertoni Milano, a company known today as GDE Bertoni, becoming its artistic director and master sculptor. Within two decades, that partnership with Bertoni would put him at the center of a competition FIFA was about to launch.

• 3. Building The New Trophy

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  Brazil's third World Cup win, at the 1970 final in Mexico, meant the team kept the Jules Rimet Trophy for good under FIFA's own rules. That left the tournament without a cup to award next. On the 5th of April 1971, FIFA's headquarters in Zurich hosted a jury chaired by the organization's former president, Sir Stanley Rous. That committee received authorization to put the design of a replacement trophy out to open competition. Gazzaniga worked from a studio tucked into Milan's artists' quarter, close to the Brera Academy and the Sforzesco Castle, and he began immediately. Sketches alone could not capture the fluidity he wanted, so he built both a plasticine model and a plaster cast. He pursued the design before any formal agreement was in place, a risk that ultimately worked in his favor. 53 designs arrived from artists in 25 nations, and FIFA chose his. The judges responded to how the design looked and felt, to its symbolic weight, and to how well it would photograph, and gave it their approval. The cup was cast in gold immediately and officially adopted by FIFA in January 1972. Gazzaniga himself would later describe exactly what he intended that design to express.

• 4. In His Own Words

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  Gazzaniga later explained his thinking directly. "To create a universal symbol relating to sport and the harmony of world sport, I was inspired by two fundamental images: those of a triumphant athlete and of the world," he said. He wanted the design's lines to stay clear and bold, capturing what he called "the elation of the winning footballer, a man transformed by the enormity of his victory, but without the ego of the super human."

  Gazzaniga described the two raised arms at the top of the cup as an expression of victory itself. He said the sphere above them was "shaped with a relief reflecting the images of continents," linking the object to football and to the world at once. The rough texture between the two facing figures, in his words, conveyed "the intensity, vigour, energy and the competitive spirit of football."

  Gazzaniga said he would change nothing about the design, even looking back decades later. "The fact that the trophy still endures today in this changing world of fashions is a testament to the fact that I was inspired by beautiful symbols and universal principles that became part of my creation," he said. That same gold object carried physical specifications that would later be measured down to the gram.

• 5. Gold Malachite And Time

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  Cera Persa, the lost wax method, shaped the World Cup Trophy. It is the same casting technique used thousands of years ago for some of antiquity's most famous metal statues. The finished piece is solid 18-carat gold, hollow inside, and weighs 6,175 grams. It stands 36.8 centimetres tall on a base measuring 13 centimetres across. Two bands of green malachite wrap that base. The inner and lower sections carry the engraved names of every winning team since 1974, each in its own national language. Unlike the Jules Rimet Trophy, this cup will never belong permanently to any nation, no matter how many times a team wins it. FIFA plans to keep awarding the same trophy until 2038, when its available inscription space finally runs out. By then, Germany and Argentina will each have had their name engraved three times. Germany's wins came in 1974, 1990, and 2014, and Argentina's in 1978, 1986, and 2022. Italy, Brazil, and France have each won twice, and Spain once, in 2010. Since the 2006 final in Germany, FIFA has kept the original trophy rather than handing it permanently to the champions. In earlier years, the winning federation held onto the cup for four years, returning it only once lots were drawn for the next tournament's opponents. Today the captain lifts the original at the ceremony after the final, and the champions later receive a copy to keep. Long before any of those inscriptions were cut, the trophy had already begun its journey through the hands of the players who won it.

• 6. Hands That Held It

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  Franz Beckenbauer became the first player to raise the newly made trophy, in 1974. Daniel Passarella followed in 1978, then Dino Zoff in 1982 and Diego Maradona in 1986. Lothar Matthäus held it in 1990, Dunga in 1994, and Didier Deschamps in 1998. Cafu carried it in 2002, Fabio Cannavaro in 2006, and Iker Casillas in 2010. Philipp Lahm lifted it in 2014, Hugo Lloris in 2018, and Lionel Messi in 2022. That same reputation soon carried Gazzaniga's work well beyond football itself.

• 7. Beyond The Pitch

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  In 1972, Gazzaniga created the UEFA Cup trophy, and a year later, in 1973, he made the UEFA Super Cup trophy as well. His workshop later produced the Baseball World Cup trophy in 2001, along with trophies for the Bobsleigh and Volleyball World Cups. He also designed medals for major events in basketball, swimming, and skiing. In 2011, Italy's Presidency of the Council of Ministers, under the patronage of President Giorgio Napolitano, commissioned a trophy. It would mark the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. Gazzaniga took on the challenge and submitted his own design for that commemorative cup. Recognition for his career had already arrived from his home city years earlier. On the 7th of December 2003, Milan's then mayor, Gabriele Albertini, awarded him the Certificate of Merit of the Ambrogino d'Oro. He gave it on behalf of the City Council. The citation praised his "professional reputation as one of the most prolific contemporary artists of the city." International recognition followed in 2011. On the 14th of October, at the International Numismatic Fair in Vicenza, the International Association of Numismatists and Medal Designers gave him their International Award. Their citation praised a long career of, in its words, "beautifully drawn designs of coins and medals," handled with "courage and consummate skill." The Italian Republic later named him a Commander in its Order of Merit, in 2012. None of these honors, though, said anything about the man who went home to his family each evening.

• 8. A Life Beyond Trophies

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  Elsa was Gazzaniga's wife for more than 60 years, and the couple raised two children, Gabriella and Giorgio. By most accounts, she was the love of his life and his partner in his art. Away from trophies and medals, he pursued a passion for design, for sports cars, and for aircraft. He found inspiration on walks through the mountains, where he photographed the natural world around him. Silvio Gazzaniga died in Milan on the 31st of October 2016. The objects he shaped are still raised at ceremonies around the world, long after the hands that made them went still.