FIFA plans to collect items after every match at the 2026 World Cup to build a record of the tournament, though the organization will not reveal how those objects will be gathered. The governing body already preserves items such as the net from the 2018 final and the tracksuit Pelé wore at the 1958 World Cup. FIFA houses artifacts across multiple museums in Vancouver, Miami, Zurich and Hong Kong.
Not every defining object is in FIFA’s care. Some famous pieces remain elsewhere, including Ronaldinho’s Brazil shirt from his 2002 free kick against England and Mario Götze’s match-winning boot from the 2010 final. One early catalyst for collecting World Cup relics was Pelé’s 1970 winners’ medal, which is not displayed in Brazil but forms part of the Allianz Collection at Saracens rugby club in North London, owned by Nigel Wray.
The chaotic nature of the inaugural 1930 tournament is illustrated by the final’s match ball. Organizers allowed Argentina and Uruguay to use their own balls during the competition; Argentina’s, slightly smaller and lighter, was used in the first half of the final, with Uruguay’s employed in the second. Argentina led 2-1 at halftime, but Uruguay rallied to a 4-2 victory and claimed the first World Cup trophy — a gold-plated statue originally called “Victory” and later renamed in honor of FIFA president Jules Rimet in 1946. There is a claim the Argentina ball was used for the whole game, but historians cannot confirm that; the ball now sits in the Saracens collection.
Collectors also safeguard rarer paper items. Italian collector Matteo Melodia assembled thousands of tickets beginning in 1987, paring an initial haul of about 60,000 down to roughly 7,000. He holds one of only three or four known tickets from the 1934 final in Rome, where Italy beat Czechoslovakia 2-1 after extra time before an estimated 55,000 fans. Melodia told ESPN that tickets are especially scarce because they are typically discarded at matches, and he still lacks a ticket from Czechoslovakia’s 3-1 semifinal victory over Germany.
The 1938 tournament produced another durable artifact: the Jules Rimet trophy base plate updated to record Italy’s successful title defense. Italy defeated Norway, France and Brazil en route to a 4-2 win over Hungary in the final, ensuring their name was engraved on the trophy’s base plate.
