VIDEO: Fifa World Cup trophy tour kicks off in Dubai with fervor amid fanfare
- 12 May 2022
Mohammad Abdullah, Sports Reporter
The FIFA World Cup trophy tour kicked off in Dubai in the presence of legends like Iker Casillas and Kaka amid fanfare on Thursday.
Dubai is the first stop over for the trophy, which will be taken across all the 32 countries, who have qualified for the showpiece event and the GCC countries. The trophy will stop in 51 countries and territories, bringing Coca-Cola and FIFA one step closer to the goal of visiting each of FIFA’s 211 member associations by 2030.
The coveted trophy begins its journey with 193 days to go for the World Cup in Qatar.
Both the FIFA legends got nostalgic on seeing the coveted silverware after a long time and went down the memory lane to share the experiences.
They narrated elaborately how it felt to lay down hands on the trophy, which remains an elusive dreams of many world’s biggest footballers throughout their career.
World’s two most successful soccer contemporary players – Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – still have not experienced the delight and pride of the lifting the sport’s most decorated silverware. This might the last chance for either of them to fulfill their dream of winning the World Cup.
“It is an incredible honour to be part of the first stop of the FIFA World Cup trophy tour. I played my first World Cup when I was just 20 years old, and it is still fresh in my mind, it was a dream come true,” recalled Kaka.
“It is been 20 years since I first lifted the trophy but it remains etched in my memory as if it was only yesterday,” he added.
Casillas said: “It was one of the biggest achievements of my career when I lifted this trophy as captain of Spain in 2010.
“It fills me with great pride to join you all, as we kick off the journey of the FIFA World Cup trophy, bringing it to the fans across the globe.”