Soccer's World Cup trophy makes Canadian premiere

Soccer's World Cup trophy makes Canadian premiere

Now here’s something you don’t see every day in these parts: a trophy celebration.

Now don’t get your hopes up, sports fans. In a place where first-round playoff victories have gridlocked Yonge Street – kids, you’ll have to trust an oldtimer on that bit of local lore – this was a special one-off visit, literally here today and gone tomorrow. Then again, this is not just any trophy. Delivered to a Pearson airport hangar via a specially kitted-out DC-9, the World Cup’s 18-karat gold prize bauble made its unprecedented arrival Wednesday morning for a whirlwind tour of Toronto media spots and a public, albeit ticketed gathering at official rights-holder CBC. The next time we see it up close, it’ll be in high-def on July 11, an audience of millions watching the crowning of the 2010 World Cup champions in South Africa.

“I’m thinking it’s Ivory Coast - I’m thinking of Didier Drogba,” is the lukewarm prediction hazarded by Somali-born, Toronto-raised hip-hopper K’Naan, sitting in a chair in the front section of the plane and remarkably chipper considering the just-completed redeye from Seattle, and a battery of interviews ongoing. No big surprise, that. His Waving Flag breakout tune has been adopted as Coke’s officially-licensed anthem for 2010 South Africa, and he’s been along most every step of the way for what’s been billed as the longest tour in sports. Having started last September in Egypt, the trophy goes on from here Thursday to Miami, Houston and finally back to South Africa for the final countdown to the June 11 opening game in Johannesburg.

At the centre of it is the trophy, hardly a heavyweight at about 6.1 kilos (the Stanley Cup is 2 ½ times heavier) and standing precisely 36.8 centimetres tall (barely an Oscar-sized head above that Academy Awards statuette). It can light up a room, though, and for the past nine months it’s been travelling the world doing just that, a crew of 14 minders from official sponsors Coca-Cola along for the ride and never letting it out of sight until it’s tucked away into an overhead compartment for the trip to the next leg.

“It’s really about taking it out and letting the world see it,” said FIFA spokeman Bryan Chenault. “It’s kept in an undisclosed location in Zurich until World Cup time. It’s not a replica, it’s the real thing.”

A deft bit of product placement, that last bit, and even if unintentional well in character for a FIFA organization that relies on the quadrennial men’s World Cup and its sponsors to ensure a billion-dollar business. That includes items like a solid-gold trophy kept under glass on this journey covering 86 countries and 130,000 kilometres, or more than three times around the world. In his remarks, Chenault quoted his boss Sepp Blatter’s reference to FIFA and the soft drink company as “not just a sponsorship, but a love affair” – a case of too much information, really, but there you are.

K’Naan is new to this partnership, but even as a casual sports fan he’s well aware of Toronto’s situation (and Canada’s in soccer, with only one appearance in a World Cup Finals, way back in 1986). Push him and he’ll confess to having attended a Raptors game; listen to him and you get the sense he sounds like any frustrated fan of that side: “We need to invest a little more in this world, the talent isn’t missing but our players are easily bought out. The diversity of this place should help more than it does.”

Sounds like a situation crying out for the kind of unity that Waving Flag has inspired, a versatile, hummable tune that has gone from his lips to the world’s ears. Could there be an anthem for Toronto sports relief next?

“Naw,” he says with a chuckle, “First they gotta start to win.”