The Henri Delaunay Cup – the EURO’s cherished prize | UEFA EURO 2020
Italy or England will earn themselves footballing immortality when one of many finalists wins the UEFA EURO 2020 title at London’s Wembley Stadium on Sunday – and the gamers and their celebrating followers will totally grasp the extent of this achievement in the intervening time that their proud skipper triumphantly raises the Henri Delaunay Cup.
The coveted trophy that symbolises European nationwide group soccer’s premier competitors bears the title of the French soccer administrator who performed a vital position in UEFA’s beginning in June 1954, and who served as UEFA’s first normal secretary till his premature dying in November 1955.
Henri Delaunay’s dream
It does so specifically as a result of Henri Delaunay was the prime catalyst within the course of that led to the launch within the Nineteen Fifties of the European Nations’ Cup – the competitors that might finally turn out to be the UEFA European Soccer Championship and blossom into one of many world’s main sporting spectacles.
Delaunay had nurtured the dream of organising a European competitors for nationwide groups because the Nineteen Twenties, and tenaciously pursued his dream as UEFA took its first faltering steps. Sadly, he wouldn’t stay to see that dream fulfilled – however his pioneering groundwork would by no means be forgotten. When the new competition was finally launched at the UEFA Congress in Stockholm in June 1958, Ebbe Schwartz – UEFA’s first president – proposed that in recognition of the artistic affect of Henri Delaunay, the trophy awarded to the winners ought to carry his title.
The French Soccer Federation (FFF) president Pierre Pochonet introduced on the identical time that his affiliation was going to supply the trophy. The next process of getting the brand new silverware manufactured fell upon Henri Delaunay’s son Pierre, who had succeeded his late father as UEFA normal secretary in 1956 and maintained the impetus that led to the momentous determination in Stockholm.
Trophy thought
“Europe is a phrase of Greek origin,” Pierre Delaunay instructed UEFA Direct journal in September 2005. “Europe definitely originated within the Mediterranean Basin, and Greece invented the Olympic Video games, so I assumed it might be a good suggestion to search out an historic Greek artefact, depicting a ball if doable – one thing which was not notably widespread – and reproduce this within the type of a trophy.
“A Greek journalist who was a buddy of Constantin Constantaras, a member of the [UEFA] Government Committee, discovered a sculpture of an athlete controlling a ball on the Nationwide Archaeological Museum in Athens. The Parisian silversmith Chobillon, who was commissioned to make the trophy, reproduced it on the cup, on the alternative aspect to the title.”
The unique trophy was purchased later by the Arthus-Bertrand firm in Paris. It was on present for the primary time on the inaugural four-team Nations’ Cup remaining match in France in 1960, and could be hoisted by profitable captains 12 instances in whole.
A brand new model
The sculpture in query didn’t survive the recasting of the trophy by the famend London-based goldsmith, silversmith and jewellers Asprey within the run-up to UEFA EURO 2008 in Austria and Switzerland. Within the intervening years, the Nations’ Cup had been renamed the UEFA European Soccer Championship for the 1966–68 version, and the variety of individuals rose in relation to the competitors’s development in stature and attraction – firstly from 4 to eight in 1980, after which to 16 for the 1996 match in England.
Because the championship took its exalted place alongside the FIFA World Cup and Summer season Olympic Video games on the rostrum of worldwide sporting points of interest, UEFA determined that an up to date model of the trophy was required to mirror the status and attraction of what was now extensively often known as the ‘EURO’.
UEFA needed to enhance on the standard and scale of the trophy, as a way to have a focus for the EURO – the sensation was that the unique trophy was too small and overshadowed by different UEFA competitors trophies. Asprey was best for the job of reincarnating the trophy. However there was by no means any debate in regards to the new silverware’s title – Henri Delaunay’s everlasting legacy would stay intact.
The second model of the trophy continues to be primarily based on the unique model. It’s fabricated from sterling silver and is 60cm tall, 18cm greater than the unique, and weighs 8kg, which is 2kg heavier than the primary trophy.
There are different minor variations between the unique and up to date variations – the silver base was enlarged to make it steady. As well as, the names of the profitable nations that had appeared on the plinth have been engraved on the again of the trophy.
Coveted by the celebrities
The brand new trophy was unveiled on the EURO 2008 qualifying competitors attract Montreux, Switzerland, on 26 January 2006. When the ultimate match came about two years later, Spain’s goalkeeper Iker Casillas loved the privilege of changing into the primary skipper to carry the up to date model after his group’s victory over Germany in Vienna.
Europe’s most interesting gamers really feel intense delight in representing their nation – and brandishing the Henri Delaunay Cup stays a goal that they yearn to succeed in once they don their nationwide shirt.
The soccer world isn’t solely wanting ahead with keen pleasure to watching Sunday’s remaining unfold. Specifically, followers of Italy and England are additionally making an attempt to envisage of their minds how they may really feel and react when their victorious captain receives the Henri Delaunay Cup from UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin, raises this iconic prize to the skies and completes one other essential chapter in soccer’s wealthy and enduring historical past.
https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro-2020/information/026b-12b68866d10c-3752fb3a31e1-1000–the-henri-delaunay-cup-the-euro-s-cherished-prize/?rss=026b-12b68866d10c-3752fb3a31e1-1000the+henri+delaunay+cup+the+euro+s+cherished+prize