Three 18-carat gold trophies were hoisted by the winners of the Golden Boot, Golden Glove and Golden Ball. The Golden Glove was given to German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in addition to $35 million handed off to the entire German team as the overall winner of the 2014 World Cup.
In a Yahoo! Sports report, each country can decide how to spend their cash prize. Before the tournament started, every participating nation was given $1.5 million for training, travel expenses and other miscellaneous costs. FIFA keeps around $70 million to give out to the participating clubs for the once-in-four-years tournament.
FIFA is arguably the biggest sporting event in the world. The whole event lasts five weeks and the FIFA organization is estimated to earn around $4.5 billion total including contributions from sponsors, broadcasting networks and licensing among others. Each team generally also have their own set of sponsors from their own countries. It is also a great opportunity for top soccer players in the world to showcase their talents and hopefully land giant deals with interested teams around the world.
James Rodriguez, winner of the Golden Boot, has more than doubled his worth after the tournament. The Golden Ball winner Lionel Messi, is kept by Barcelona at a salary of over $50 million per year.
According to Heavy, the 2014 cash prize is the biggest in the history of the World Cup, breaking the $30 million record set in the 2010 World Cup in Spain. The gold trophies are actually returned to FIFA and replicas are given to the players but the $35 million will remain with the team.
The runner-up, Argentina, received $25 million, the Netherlands received $20 million for third place and Brazil received $18 million for fourth place. The United States also earned $9 million for moving up to the Round of 16. All round of 16 teams get $9 million each. The eliminated teams in the Group Stage get $8 million each while the quarterfinals losers get $14 million each.
Brazil, as the host country, will also receive more cash to cover construction and preparation costs. However, it is unlikely that it will be able to recoup its investments totaling around $14 billion. Brazil built and fixed 12 stadiums in different cities and made numerous enhancements in lieu of the World Cup. Host countries bid and prepare for the major event years before the actual kickoff.