Top 100 momentsNo. 2
The first World Cup
Uruguay hosts thirteen teams and lifts the first Jules Rimet Trophy. A month-long tournament becomes the planet’s biggest sporting event.
FIFA wants a tournament that is not the Olympics. Uruguay, Olympic champion and a hundred years independent, offers to host and pay the visitors’ way. Thirteen teams make the trip. Europe sends four. The rest of the field is the Americas.
The final is Uruguay 4, Argentina 2, in a new stadium in Montevideo. The trophy is named for Jules Rimet. The crowd is home. The idea is bigger than the crowd: a world championship for the world’s game, every four years, with no amateur footnote.
A century later the World Cup is the planet’s largest shared sporting event. It started with a small field, a long boat ride, and a host that already knew how to win.