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Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) is on the run these days for the World Cup Twenty Ten in South Africa. Following its recent agreement on Official World Cup Watches a few weeks ago, the international governing body of association football has just sanctioned 40-year-old Colombian Jeweler Carlos Sotelo to hand-craft the OFFICIAL FIFA 2010 WORLD CUP RINGS. One ring out of 2,010 pieces will go to the MVP (Most Valuable Player) of the tournament. Is it going to be Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Wayne Rooney, Fernando Torres or maybe Franck Ribery?

Inspired by U.S. NBA and NFL Super Bowl Championship Rings, CARLOS SOTELO took four years to convince World Cup Officials to approve his rings. He tripped many times to FIFA headquarters in Switzerland and revealed (as told to Reuters), “I wanted to make a special ring, a super ring, for FIFA.” He argued that Colombia, rich in gold and emerald, has a strong tradition of jewelry-making. In fact, Colombia, despite their absence in the tournament, has contributed pop star SHAKIRA to sing the Official World Cup 2010 Official song and Juanes, another Colombian crooner, to be on staged at the opening concert in Johannesburg, June 11th.

Shakira - Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) 

Encrusted with the green gems found in the mountains of the Andean country, the Official FIFA 2010 World Cup Ring features soccer balls, stadiums, and the flags of the 32 participating countries. There in a private house turned workshop in Bucaramanga – Colombia, the goldsmith ENRIQUE VASQUES and his colleagues of 269 artisans are working hard to accomplish the rings before the event starts. However, they cannot rush the job; instead they need to do painstakingly placing the tiny emeralds on the platinum, gold and silver rings. Vasques added, “Our experience in jewelry-making over the years makes for a world-class product. But there are a lot of parameters to meet.”

FIFA 2010 World Cup Rings are being examined through the magnifying scope at a jewellery workshop in Bucaramanga April 22, 2010.

A jeweler works on FIFA World Cup 2010 Rings at a workshop in Bucaramanga

The Colombian World Cup Blings Collections will consist of:

• 7 platinum rings; each encrusted with 220 emeralds, to be sold for US $250,000 a piece.
  1 (one) platinum ring will be donated to FIFA.
• 33 white gold rings; each encrusted with 36 emeralds and an array of South African diamonds; the price will be US $70,000 per piece.
  1 (one) gold ring will be given to UNICEF, in recognition of the U.N. agency’s work on behalf of disadvantaged children; and another gold ring will be presented to the Best Player of the World Cup T20 South Africa. 
• 1,970 rings made of gold and silver; each will feature 4 emeralds, to be sold for US $2,500 each.

 

FIFA 2010 World Cup Rings in the making

FIFA 2010 World Cup Ring are being polished

Two unfinished FIFA 2010 World Cup rings

“If the market is strong enough we will do a second and third collection,” Sotelo said. What’s more, at future World Cups, he aspires to have the rings distributed to members of the winning team.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup, scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010, will be the 19th FIFA World Cup, the premiere international football tournament. It will be the culmination of a qualification process which involved 201 of the 208 FIFA national teams. As such, it matches the 2008 Summer Olympics as the sports event with the most competing nations. Likewise, this will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by an African nation, after South Africa beat Morocco and Egypt in an all-African bidding process.

| Via | | images courtesy of REUTERS/John Vizcaino |

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