World Cup 2010 South Africa

On 15 May 2004, the long walk to the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ started with Nelson Mandela lifting the FIFA World Cup Trophy in Zurich. 

With tears of joy in his eyes, he proclaimed that he felt "like a boy of 15" on the day South Africa was awarded the right to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Today (6 May 2010), nearly six years later, South Africa’s first democratic President, Madiba, again laid his hands on the Trophy at Johannesburg’s Nelson Mandela Foundation just 35 days before kick-off of Africa’s first FIFA World Cup. For FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke and Organising Committee CEO Danny Jordaan, it was a very special moment to personally share this moment.

"Nelson Mandela was one of the architects of this FIFA World Cup. We will never forget the moment when South Africa was awarded the FIFA World Cup. Madiba is the symbol of this new democratic South Africa. For us there was no way that the Trophy would arrive in the country and not be brought first to Mandela”, explained Valcke. “Nelson Mandela expressed his wish that he would see Bafana Bafana win the FIFA World Cup.  We really hope that he will experience together with us the special moment celebrating South Africa’s achievements in the stadium”.