The Henri Delaunay Trophy

Portugal are the winners of the 2016 UEFA European Championship and they will be the lucky team who will be receiving the prestigious Henri Delaunay Trophy.

Here is a little bit of history for you about that particular trophy.

Named after Henri Delaunay; the man who coined the idea of having the actual European championship and who was also the first general secretary of UEFA. Unfortunately Henri passed away five years before the first tournament was held in 1960 and would never see the trophy himself, the job of creating the trophy for the tournament would fall to his son Pierre who succeeded his father to become the second general secretary of UEFA in 1956.

Ever since the very first tournament took place the winning team are awarded with the trophy and they will keep it for four years until the next tournament begins.

Since its creation in 1960 the trophy had been unchanged but in the year of 2008 UEFA made the decision to update the trophy as they believed their other trophies, ones like the European Champion Clubs' Cup for example were overshadowing it.

The remodelled trophy is now made of sterling silver and is 1lb heavier and 7inches longer than the original, making it 18lbs in weight and 24inches tall. The marble plinth was removed along with the juggling figure on the back and the silver based was made bigger to add stability. Names that were originally on the plinth are now engraved on the back of the trophy.

The first captain to get the honour of lifting the newly made UEFA European Championship trophy was Iker Casillas of Spain in 2008.