A Trophy of Gold and Stone
The FIFA World Cup Trophy in use today is built from 18-carat gold for most of the figure. Around its base is a band of malachite, a striking green semi-precious stone whose patterned surface gives the trophy its instantly recognisable green ring. The figure itself shows two human forms reaching upwards together to support a stylised Earth. The trophy stands about 36.8 centimetres tall and weighs roughly 6.1 kilograms — a heavy object once you account for the density of solid gold.
A New Trophy for a New Era
The current design was introduced in 1974, when FIFA needed a new prize after retiring the original. It was designed by the Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga and was chosen from a wide field of submissions. The first nation to lift the new trophy was West Germany, in the 1974 final on home soil. Since then it has been raised by every World Cup-winning captain, from Daniel Passarella in 1978 to Lionel Messi in 2022.
The Winners Do Not Keep It
One detail that surprises many fans: the country that wins the World Cup does not actually keep the trophy. It is loaned to the champions to take home and use for ceremonies and parades, but it must eventually be returned to FIFA. The winning country instead gets a gold-plated replica of the trophy to keep permanently. The real one stays in FIFA's hands and travels each cycle to the next champion. That arrangement, introduced in 1974, is part of how the current trophy avoided the fate of the very first one.
Source
This article was written using information from Wikipedia.