Mellerio, Aitana Bonmati, Ousmane Dembélé and the Golden Ball
As is the case every autumn, soccer awakens to a new season, and afficionados eagerly await the Ballon d'Or ceremony rewarding the world's best player of the past season.
On Monday September 22, Aitana Bonmati, FC Barcelona and Spanish national team (third time in a row), and Paris Saint-Germain star Ousmane Dembélé (first time in his career), each lifted the Ballon d'Or in their own category. A trophy fashioned by Maison Mellerio since 1956 in its workshop at 9, rue de la Paix, Paris. Although the world's oldest family-run jeweller is now well known for its jewelry, it should be remembered that goldsmithing is its original expertise. He works with numerous sports federations to create trophies for the automobile, ballet, equestrian, cycling and fencing industries. Every year, the craftsmen on rue de la Paix devote hundreds of hours to designing these trophies. For the Ballon d'Or awarded to Aitana Bonmati and Ousmane Dembélé this year, the manufacturing process has not changed since 1956. Two brass half-spheres are first soldered together, then drilled to accommodate a pyrite base. Then comes the most delicate stage: the chasing, done by hand on a "cement", to rigorously reproduce the 32 facets of a football. The piece then passes through the hands of a polisher before being engraved with the France Football logo and the year of the edition. The final step is the gold bath, followed by the final assembly on its pyrite base, hand-cut by a glyptician so that the stone perfectly matches the gilded brass plate on which the trophy rests.