Football is the most-watched sport globally, and there are several competitions for enthusiasts of the sport to enjoy. However, many competitions come with trophies and grand rewards for victors. Winning the trophy is always a great goal that each player strives for. It also signifies an individual’s or a team’s victory and pride, in addition to material well-being.
These trophies attract a lot of attention, and every club and player that is eligible wants to win. The worth is measured not only in terms of money, but also in terms of the prestige that comes with raising each of them.
In this article, we will discuss the Top 10 Most Expensive Football Trophies In the World 2022, the competition behind them & their net worth.
ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE TROPHY – $10000
The English Premier Competition is the most-watched football league globally, and arguably the toughest to play in. Despite its popularity, the Premier League is the tenth most costly trophy in football with a grand prize of $10,000.
The cup is constructed of silver, gilded silver, and malachite, a semi-precious gemstone discovered in Africa, and it’s the most prestigious tournament in England. The design of the Trophy is based on the theme of “The Three Lions of English Football”. Two of the lions are above the handles on either side. When the captain of the title-winning team raises the Trophy, and its gold crown, above his head at the end of the season, he becomes the third lion.
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TROPHY – $15000
The most popular and prestigious football club competition in the world surprisingly isn’t among the top 5 most expensive football trophies in the world. Real Madrid has the highest number of Champions league wins, with a record of 14 wins.
The trophy was designed by Jürg Stadelmann near the then UEFA headquarters, Berne. It weighs 7.5 kilograms and stands at a height of 73.5 centimetres. The trophy has been nicknamed ‘Ol’ Big Ears’ due to its large handles resembling human ears.
The UEFA Champions League trophy has had several names, designs and versions. The current one is the fifth version of the updated design. In the 1968/1969 season, UEFA introduced a rule to permanently award the trophy to any club that won the competition for three seasons in a row.
Barcelona, Liverpool, Milan, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, and Ajax Amsterdam all have one in their trophy rooms. The rule was scrapped in the 2008-2009 season. Now, the original version remains with UEFA, and the winners are given a replica.
BUNDESLIGA TROPHY – $57,102
The Bundesliga Trophy is known as the Meisterschale. It is the trophy presented to the winner of the German Football League popularly known as the Bundesliga.
Designed and created in Kölner Werkschulen by the renowned art professor, Elisabeth Treskow in 1964, the award is currently being competed by 18 teams. It weighs 11 kg. Tourmaline weighing 71.98 carats, silver, and gold were used in the creation. The shield-like trophy has the names of all German league winners dating back to 1903 engraved on it.
SERIE A TROPHY (SCUDETTO) – $66,000
The very popular Serie A competition is played among 20 top flight Italian football clubs. The Serie A trophy, originally known as “Coppa Campioni d’Italia,” meaning ‘the Trophy of the Champions of Italy’ is popularly known as the Scuddeto. It is awarded to the winner of the league. The trophy has a blue sodalite base and a gold ring in the middle depicting athletes.
In 1960, renowned sculptor Ettore Calvelli sculpted the Trophy of the Champions of Italy and the Seria A cup. The trophy has a blue sodalite base and a gold ring in the centre with athletes depicted. The trophy weighs 8 kilograms and stands 58 centimetres tall. However, the trophy was never presented to the winning team in the stadium until 2004. It used to be sent to the winning club’s headquarters.
The custom was amended in 2004, and since then, Serie A champions have been allowed to parade the trophy around the stadium. The Serie A trophy is the most costly league trophy in Europe.
AFRICA CUP OF NATIONS TROPHY – $150,000
The African Cup of Nations, more popularly known as AFCON is a competition played by the best teams in Africa to compete for the ultimate prize – the prestigious AFCON trophy.
The current trophy, a gold plated trophy is the third design of the trophy. The first trophy, made of silver, was the Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem Trophy, named after the first CAF president, Egyptian Abdelaziz Abdallah Salem. It was retained by Ghana in 1978, after they won the competition three times.
The second trophy was awarded from 1980 to 2000, and was named “Trophy of African Unity”. It was a cylindrical piece with the Olympic rings over a map of the continent engraved on it. Beating Nigeria in Surulere in 2000 to make it three competition wins, Cameroon retained the cup.
In 2001, the third trophy was revealed, a gold-plated cup designed and made in Italy. Egypt won the gold-plated cup indefinitely after they became three-time champions in 2010. Unlike the previous three time winners, Egypt were given a replica just as any other team who wins the tournament three times would always get a replica.
BALLON D’OR TROPHY – $805,439
The Ballon d’or trophy is the most coveted individual accolade 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.
The award was created in 1956 by the French magazine (Stanley Matthews was its first winner) and merged in 2010 with the FIFA World Player of the Year, founded in 1991. However, the agreement came to an end in 2016 and the award changed back to Ballon d’Or.
Argentine captain and playmaker, Lionel Messi is the highest recipient of the trophy, a golden ball.
The trophy has a height of 28 cm, a diameter of 22 cm, and weighs around 12 kg, with two brass plates embossed to give them the shape of a ball.
It has a sphere filled with a wax-like material that is chiselled to give the shape and seam of the spherical representation. It is then bathed in fine gold with the France Football logo and the name of the winner engraved.
THE ENGLISH F.A CUP TROPHY – $1.18 Million
The Football Association Challenge Cup is the oldest national football competition in the world. More commonly 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 loaned 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.
EUROPA LEAGUE TROPHY – $4.5 Million
The UEFA Europa League Trophy is the heaviest of all UEFA silverware. Tipping 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.
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 remains 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.
The trophy’s original design only allowed for 18 winners’ badges, but it was subsequently altered to accommodate more. In 2009, the trophy went through a major renovation as the badges were organised to have nine horizontal columns with vertical rows. The trophy is scheduled to be filled by the 2024 edition. The top of the trophy is mostly made of sterling silver. Silver-coated bronze is used just for a little figure on the crest.
FIFA WORLD CUP – $20 Million
The FIFA World cup is the most prestigious competition in the world, as such, it isn’t surprising that the FIFA World Cup is the most expensive not only in football but in all sports. The trophy was created in 1974 by renowned Italian artist Silvio Gazzaniga and is awarded to the winning team at the World Cup tournament that takes place every four years.
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.