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Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan attended on Wednesday a ceremonious event at the Spendiarian National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater to welcome the FIFA World Cup Trophy to our country. The President of Armenia joined the event together with little Serzh, his football fan grandson, press department at the President's Office reported.

In line with the prescribed protocol which states that during the World Cup Trophy Tour, the Head of State and the FIFA World Cup Champions receive it in the host country, President Sargsyan took over the trophy from Christian Karembeu, a 1998 FIFA World Cup Champion from France national team. The most prominent football award, the Gold Cup, has been traveling for the 4th time on an international tour that will last 220 days and includes more than 50 countries, of which 24 will be presented for the first time, including Armenia.

At the end of the ceremony, FIFA representative Lucas Rakhov donated a small duplicate of the golden cup by the International Football Federation, and Brazil's Ambassador to Armenia Agemar de Mendonça Sanctos gave the Armenian President a football shirt sent by legendary footballer Pele featuring the latter's autograph.

In his welcoming speech Sargsyan noted that football is a unique world that unites billions of people, regardless of color, religion, sex, age, education, and so on. All they have in common is love for this awesome game.