Jules Rimet Cup (1929-1983). She has history. Created the year before the first World Cup, in 1930 (in Uruguay), it was named after the then president of FIFA, a Frenchman.
A very beautiful and emblematic cup. Its image represents Nice, the Greek goddess of victory, and the trophy would go definitively to the country that won three World Cups first.
It passed through the hands of captains in eight World Cups, including those of the Brazilians Bellini, in 1958, and Mauro Ramos, in 1962, before reaching those of Carlos Alberto, in 1970. With the victory of the tri, in Mexico, the world cup was ours (“no one can do it with a Brazilian”), Jules Rimet would come to Brazil.
And it came. Only to become, years later, the target of one of the most famous robberies known.
Thieves invaded the CBF headquarters, on Rua da Alfândega, in the center of Rio, on the night of December 19, 1983, a Monday, captured the only security guard, opened the glass dome in which it was located and took it.
The plan had been previously drawn up, with the head of the operation being Sérgio Pereira Ayres, known as Peralta. His accomplices were José Luiz Vieira, the Mustache, and Francisco Rivera, the Bearded. The latter were the ones who carried out the robbery.
The group had information about the fragile security scheme. There was no alarm or sensors and it wasn’t even necessary to break the glass that housed Jules Rimet, just remove it.
The gang’s objective was to pass the cup on to a gold merchant and obtain money. This, according to the testimony of the thieves, later arrested, happened.
The merchant, working in Rio, was an Argentine, goldsmith Juan Carlos Hernández, who worked in metal casting.
Thus, the melting of Jules Rimet remained in everyone’s memory, “she became bars of gold”. That, turning into gold bars, did not happen. The amount of gold in the 3.8 kg trophy was minimal (about 100 grams). It was silver, gold plated.
Was the cup melted? It was never proven. The trio of thieves claimed to have sold it to Hernández, who denied this event to the police. He was not convicted, due to lack of evidence.
Therefore, there is a lack of a well-founded conclusion regarding the whereabouts of Jules Rimet. The case was judicially closed in 1988, and everything remained in the realm of supposition.
After so much time, even if one wanted to officially revisit the case of the famous cup, it would not be possible, as two of the bandits died and the third (Bigode) disappeared from the map, as did the Argentine.
The return visit ends right here. I was instigated to do so by Sérgio Zandoná, responsible for the film “The Argentinian Who Melted Jules Rimet” (available on YouTube), who financed the title version.
Personally, I consider it believable. Without a new suit, I’m convinced that Jules Rimet has become scrap metal. And that Argentinean did it.
The suspicion grows when it becomes known that, at the beginning of 1984, Hernández named the store after Aurimet. Suggestive. The combination of auri (“gold”, in Latin) with rimet (the surname of the cup) leads to a complete reading: mockery, provocation.
Jules Rimet died in middle age, aged 54, the victim of a robbery. However, it remains alive, almost a century old, in many memories, admired and the owner of a history that is beyond delicious.
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