2001 FIFA Confederations Cup Gold Medal

2001 FIFA Confederations Cup Gold Medal

The fifth FIFA Confederations Cup was hosted by South Korea and Japan. Lasting from May 30th to June 10th, 2001, the 8-team tournament was dominated by France who had earlier won the European Championship. Still, France had to overcome the loss of stars Fabien Barthez and Zinedine Zidane. Fortunately, Robert Pires, Sylvain Wiltord, Marcel Desailly and Patrick Vieira stepped up and they easily beat Korea 5-0 and Mexico 4-0 before being tripped up by Australia in a shocking 1-0 loss. The semi-final proved to be a rematch of the 1998 World Cup, pitting France against Brazil. France prevailed again, winning 2-1 and propelling "Les Bleus" to the Final against Japan. Here Patrick Vieira proved to be the hero, scoring the only goal of the game to win the Gold. Each member of the victorious French team was awarded one of these gold medals in honor of their win. The gold medallion measures 2-inches in diameter and is suspended from a red, white and blue ribbon. One side features the FIFA logo and soccer ball globes with “CONFEDERATIONS CUP” in raised letters. The other side depicts the Confederations Cup along with KOREA JAPAN 2001 in raised letters. “WINNER” has been engraved into the piece, indicating it as being awarded to a member of the French team. As the tournament was only held 10 times before FIFA discontinued the Confederations Cup after 2017, this is a unique opportunity to obtain one of the more elusive international association soccer tournament awards