This World Cup in Qatar is anything but a long calm river for Belgium. Beaten by Morocco, the Devils are up against the wall and will necessarily have to win Thursday against Croatia to reach the knockout stages. If there is a victory, Belgium could even take the Nasazzi Staffa virtual and purely symbolic trophy (yes, yes).

How Nasazzi’s Staff Works

The Batôn de Nasazzi, which has no official character, owes its name to José Nasazzi, captain of Uruguay in the very first World Cup final in history. This trophy passes from hand to hand, at the stage of a relay baton. In each match of the team holding it, the trophy is put back into play. In the event of a loss at the end of regulation time, the Baton passes to the victorious team.

The great story of the World Cup (1/8): when the Devils operated two weeks on the boat to go to the World Cup

In this little game, it is therefore Croatia which currently holds it, after having acquired it against Denmark (1-0 victory), on June 10, 2022 in the League of Nations. Since then, the Croats are still undefeated. In the head of the Devils, they have already “possessed” the Staff of Nasazzi four times: 8 weeks in 1984, 5 weeks in 1985, 4 days in 1990, 13 days in 2014.

A century of existence

It is therefore since 1930 that this trophy has been circulating virtually. The first holding nation being Uruguay, following their 4-2 victory against Argentina at home in the first World Cup in history.

In the space of 92 years, the Baton of Nasazzi has traveled quite a bit with 209 transmissions. The record ? Unsurprisingly, it is Brazil, 11 times holder, who prances at the top of this ranking. More surprisingly, this famous stick has already passed through… the Netherlands Antilles, Angola or Trinidad and Tobago.

Note that between November 2008 and October 2011, the Netherlands set the record for the longest detention of the Baton (1058 days). On the contrary, in 2001, Australia distinguished itself by only keeping it… two short days during the 2001 Confederations Cup.

The golden generation of the Red Devils could therefore obtain their first trophy on Thursday at the start of the evening.