World Cup champions come to visit

Our five-part series ‘5 years – 5 topics – 5 pictures’, in celebration of the five-year anniversary of the museum, looks back at a selection of memorable moments through five different topics. We continue with part 3: The World Cup Champion visitors

Merely World Cup champions, heads of state and the FIFA President are permitted to touch either of the two World Cup trophies with their bare hands. Our staff at the FIFA Museum wear the typical white museum gloves when handing over a trophy to a world champion during a visit. For them, the moment is also very exceptional, as the trophy often symbolises the greatest success of their career.

 

Renate Lingor and Cafu

© FIFA Museum

A visit of a World Cup champion to the FIFA Museum is always something special. But the visit of World Cup champions Renate Lingor (2003 and 2007 with Germany) and Cafu (1994 and 2002 with Brazil) stands out even more. Not only because the two legends came to the museum together and even prior the opening in February 2016 but it was the double World Cup champions who brought the trophies of the FIFA Women's World Cup and the FIFA World Cup to the museum. Since then, the two original World Cup trophies have stood side by side in glass showcases when they are not travelling.

 

Miroslav Klose

© FIFA Museum

A few weeks after the opening of the museum, we had the pleasure of welcoming Miroslav Klose, the current World Cup record goalscorer, to the museum. Klose won the World Cup with Germany in 2014 in which he scored the two goals that made him the record holder with a total of 16 world cup goals. Almost two years after winning the title, it came to an emotional reunion with the World Cup trophy at the museum. Klose was playing for Lazio Rome at the time and handed over a pair of his boots with him on his visit that he had worn at the 2014 World Cup tournament which have since been on permanent loan to the FIFA Museum collection.

 

Mia Hamm

© FIFA Museum

World Cup champions did not only visit the exhibition of the FIFA Museum in Zurich. Our special exhibition in Paris also welcomed a legend during the FIFA Women's World Cup 2019: Double World Champion (1991,1999) and Double Olympic Champion (1996, 2004) Mia Hamm from the USA. During her visit, she not only received a personal tour by museum director Marco Fazzone, but she was also able to take a look at the painting by British artist Rachel Gadsden, in which she is immortalised and is intended to be an inspiration for all football fans.

 

Kaká

© FIFA Museum

The Brazilian World Cup champion of 2002 came to the FIFA Museum in October 2019. Before an emotional reunion with the World Cup trophy, he let museum director Marco Fazzone show him the entire exhibition and also the replica of the Jules Rimet trophy with the original base. When he held the current World Cup trophy in his hands, he was so moved he didn't want to hand it back. He kept the trophy carefully in his hands during the entire tour of the "World Cup Gallery".

 

Anja Mittag

© FIFA Museum

Thanks to a FIFA event in Zurich, Anja Mittag was able to schedule a quick visit to the museum to be reunited with an old friend: The Women's World Cup trophy. Museum director Marco Fazzone gave the 2007 German World Cup champion a tour of the exhibition during regular opening hours. She was immediately recognised by a group of visitors and asked for a photograph. After she had complied with the request, she took another photograph for our archive, this time with the World Cup trophy.

 

Check out the other parts of the series:

Part 1: The Collection
Part 2: Museum Life
Part 4: Special exhibitions in Zurich and abroad
Part 5: A dance around the World Cup Trophy

Click here for our anniversary video.

 

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