22 World Cup items, 22 stories

playHas FIFA presidency changed Gianni Infantino? (1:45) FIFA won't reveal how, but after every game at the 2026 World Cup this summer, it will be collecting items that will one day document the tournament. It already has the net from the 2018 World Cup final, for example, as well as the tracksuit that Pelé wore at his first World Cup in 1958. The items live in FIFA's various museums, ranging from Vancouver and Miami to Zurich and Hong Kong. But there is a host of stuff that FIFA doesn't have, such as Ronaldinho's Brazil jersey from the game where he took that free kick against England in 2002, or Germany forward Mario Götze's game-winning boot from the 2010 final. Sometimes soccer memorabilia exists in the most unlikely of places. The item that started this quest was Pelé's 1970 World Cup winners' medal. It does not exist on display in Rio de Janeiro, as you would expect, but rather at Saracens rugby club in a district of North London, amid a fine collection that houses some of sport's most iconic items. It has been a long journey, but here we can tell the story of the previous 22 World Cups through 22 items of memorabilia. Photo credit: Allianz Collection, Saracens Nothing shows the chaotic nature of the first World Cup quite like the ball used in the final. FIFA had agreed to allow Argentina and Uruguay to use their own balls during the 13-team tournament, but what was to happen when the pair met in the final? A solution was found: Argentina's ball, slightly smaller and lighter, was used in the first half; Uruguay's ball was used for the second half. Maybe, in hindsight, the result wasn't much of a surprise. Argentina, with their own ball, took a 2-1 lead in the first half, only for Uruguay to roar back and win 4-2 in the second half to claim the first World Cup trophy -- a 14-inch tall, 8.4-pound gold-plated statue of the Greek goddess Nike named "Victory," but later renamed in honor of FIFA president Jules Rimet in 1946. There is a claim that the first-half Argentina ball was used throughout, although nobody -- not even FIFA's historians -- know for certain. Where is it now? It sits in a glass cabinet at Saracens rugby club in North London as part of the Allianz Collection owned by the club's owner, Nigel Wray. Italian fan Matteo Melodia has one of the best soccer ticket collections in the world. Starting in 1987, he previously had around 60,000 tickets, before cutting his collection down to 7,000. He has tickets from almost every World Cup game ever played. And he even has tickets for World Cup games that were never played (some tickets were issued for replays that were never needed). His rarest tickets, though, are from the 1934 World Cup semifinal and final. Italy hosted the tournament, which featured only a round-of-16 bracket, and enjoyed a dream run. They began with a 7-1 win over the United States in Rome, before squeaking past Spain and Austria. In the final, they met Czechoslovakia in front of an estimated 55,000 fans in Rome and won 2-1 after extra time. There are thought to be only three or four tickets from that final still known in existence, one of which belongs to Melodia. "Tickets in general are extremely rare to find," Melodia tells ESPN. "It's an item you usually throw out at a stadium; it's not a pin or a postcard, or something you put in a drawer for years." Where is it now? Melodia keeps the final ticket at home, but he is yet to find one for Czechoslovakia's 3-1 semifinal win over Germany. "It's the only ticket still missing in my collection," he says. There have only been two back-to-back winners of the World Cup, and the first came in 1938 when Italy defended their crown in France to etch their name for the second time onto the Jules Rimet base plate. They beat Norway, France and Brazil before facing Hungary in a one-sided final that ended 4-2. However, the most enduring story of the tournament was about what happened to the trophy in the years later. Back then, the trophy was kept by the previous winners, meaning it was held in a bank vault in Rome after the outbreak of World War II in 1939. But when Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was overthrown in 1943, which led to Germany invading after the new government signed an armistice with the Allies, the prevailing theory is that Italian FA president Ottorino Barassi (fearing the Nazis would take the trophy) smuggled it out and hid it in his house in a shoebox under his bed. From there, he sent it to some relatives in his hometown of Foggia, where it was hidden in a wooden drum designed to hold extra-virgin olive oil. The Jules Rimet trophy was returned to FIFA when the World Cup returned in 1950, although it would later be lost on multiple occasions: in 1966 by hosts England, when it was famously found by a black and white collie dog called Pickles, and permanently in 1983 when it was stolen from the Brazilian federation's offices and never recovered. However, in 2015, a FIFA staff member was digging aro

22 World Cup items, 22 stories

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