SHARED VISION
Following a tradition that began in 1973, the Soccer Legends Foundation aims to preserve and promote the legacy of the players and teams that forged the rich history of the Beautiful Game.
With a solid background earned after years of painstaking research at the birthplace of the World Cup, our experience is backed by a world-renowned soccer collection and highlighted by the highly successful 1930 World Cup Museum.
As the world prepares for the First Centennial of the World Cup in 2030, the Foundation is setting the stage for what is being regarded as the largest World Cup Exhibition ever assembled.
Designed by the French sculptor Abel Lafleur, the Jules Rimet Gold Trophy and Medals were awarded to World Cup Winners from 1930 to 1970.
The original Rimet Trophy disappeared forever in 1983. The same happened to the majority of Rimet Gold Medals, and several attempts to assemble a complete set became nearly impossible.
Now, for the first time ever, a complete, unbroken set of Jules Rimet World Cup Winners' Medals awarded between 1930 and 1970 has been brought together into a single collection: The Complete Masterpiece Set
The Complete Masterpiece Set will be the centerpiece of a monumental exhibition to commemorate the First Centennial of the World Cup and the Legacy of Mr. Jules Rimet.
The goalkeeper design by Guillermo Laborde was awarded first prize in a competition held by the Centennial Commission and selected as the official poster of the FIFA World Cup in 1930.
Since then, it was widely accepted by museums and experts as an unquestioned piece of cultural lore. However, for nearly nine decades, a glaring historical error remained hidden in plain sight on the iconic 1930 FIFA World Cup poster.
In 2016, soccer historian Rony Almeida noted an 86-year-old mistake embedded in the print, fundamentally altering how experts and historians viewed the inaugural tournament’s official dates. By tracing the poster’s design origins back to its initial roots, Almeida single-handedly forced a rewriting of early soccer history. The results were then shared by the FIFA World Football Museum in Zurich.
Today, this landmark validation work serves as the definitive global standard for authenticating 1930 World Cup memorabilia, proving that even the most deeply entrenched historical narratives require the sharp eye of a master curator.
For generations, the credit for the first player to score a hat-trick in the FIFA World Cup was subject of intense debate and historical injustice, leaving the legendary 1930 achievement of American player Bert Patenaude in a state of unverified limbo.
Searching deep into contemporary match reports, official tournament logs, and long-forgotten historical testimonies at the birthplace of the World Cup, soccer historian Rony Almeida successfully validated Bert Patenaude's historic first World Cup hat-trick during the United States’ dominant match against Paraguay in 1930.
Almeida's tireless research and definitive historical audit provided the precise breakthrough needed to permanently consolidate Patenaude’s rightful place at the absolute pinnacle of American and World Cup soccer history. Thanks to Almeida’s peerless historical scholarship, soccer's most prestigious statistical milestone is now officially accurate.