Sunday 20 July 2014
The Germany's football association chief (DFB) revealed that one of the team's players has damaged their FIFA World Cup trophy.
Germany defeated Argentina 1-0 in the final after extra-time to win the 4th world title in their history, after 1954, 1974 and 1990.
The German squad was welcomed home to jubilant scenes & toured Berlin with the trophy - but they may have celebrated a little too hard as it has been damaged by an unknown member of the team.
"At one point, a small piece of our World Cup trophy was chipped off," DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach is quoted as saying. "But do not worry! We have specialists on the case who can fix it."
"We have investigated persistently who it was that damaged the trophy, but the investigation was concluded without a result."
Luckily though, the cup they have been given by FIFA is a replica of the World Cup trophy they were presented with at the Maracana on July 13, which was estimated to be worth over €10 million (£8m).
Fifa, wisely so, tends not to trust football associations with the trophy after the original World Cup award, the Jules Rimet trophy, had been stolen for good in 1983 from Brazil after being targeted by thieves for a long time.
