“As a player, winning the World Cup, I think it’s the best,” Lionel Messi gushed when reflecting on his crowning moment of glory in Qatar four years ago. “After the World Cup, you can’t ask for anything more.”
However, the satisfaction of hoisting aloft this golden statue is not all that the winning team receives. The victorious nation in New Jersey next July will also be entitled to $50 million. Just as this World Cup boasts the most matches, hosts and declarations from U.S. President Donald Trump, it also contains the largest prize pot ever dished out by FIFA since the competition’s inception in 1930.
