FIFA to give World Cup champions first-ever title rings, Trump to present trophy

FIFA will give the 2026 World Cup champions championship rings along with the traditional trophy and gold medals, marking the first time the tournament has added a ring to the winner’s haul. U.S. President Donald Trump will present the trophy to the winners of the final in New Jersey on July 19.

The rings will be handed over after Sunday’s final at New York New Jersey Stadium, also known as MetLife Stadium, where Spain and Argentina will play for the title. FIFA said each ring will be engraved with the year, host country and winners of the tournament, and each will feature the FIFA World Cup trophy on one side. The design pushes the championship further into the language of U.S. sports pageantry, where teams are often honored with multiple forms of hardware that can be displayed, worn and collected long after the final whistle.

Trump’s role adds another layer to that shift. Gianni Infantino said Trump will take part in the trophy presentation, a prominent spot FIFA had already opened to him after his appearance in the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup ceremony at MetLife Stadium, where he stayed on stage as Chelsea lifted the trophy. FIFA later gave Trump its inaugural FIFA Peace Prize, titled Football Unites the World, during the Final Draw for the 2026 World Cup.

The World Cup itself has long relied on a single, iconic object. The current trophy was designed by Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga after Brazil won the Jules Rimet Trophy permanently in 1970, and it has remained the sport’s most recognizable prize ever since. By adding rings, FIFA is creating a second set of championship symbols around that trophy, one that feels closer to the commemorative rituals of American pro sports and the branded spectacle that has increasingly surrounded the tournament’s biggest stages.

The move also reflects the environment around the 2026 World Cup, which is being staged across the United States, Canada and Mexico, with the final in New Jersey carrying the weight of both a global championship and a highly packaged U.S. event. The rings give FIFA another way to turn victory into a permanent object, and another sign that the World Cup’s biggest ceremony is being shaped as much by marketing and host-country culture as by soccer tradition.