ESPN+ has found a format that works for series that dive into the history of our favorite sports. We’ve seen it with Peyton’s Places covering the NFL, we’ve seen it with Vince’s Places covering basketball, Rowdy’s Places covering combat sports, Big Papi’s Places for baseball and even Eli’s Places which took a look at the world of College Football. Now, Abby Wambach is back as she continues to explore the world of soccer with Abby’s Places.
The eighth episode, titled “Where is the Jules Rimet Trophy?,” Wambach heads to London to uncover one of the biggest mysteries in the history of Soccer.
Abby meets with legendary soccer commentator Ian Darke, who teaches her about the history of the Jules Rimet Trophy, which is awarded to the team that wins the World Cup. In 1966, months before England won their first World Cup, the trophy was stolen.
Darke walks Wambach through the story of the stolen trophy and they even have some actors reenact the crime. The segment is loaded with actually television footage from the news story as well as newspapers covering the story, which is a lot of fun to see.
Before letting Darke go, she asks him a few questions about his experience covering the World Cup. She specifically asks him for his favorite World Cups for both the men and women. Unsurprisingly, he recalls Wambach’s game-winning goal from 2011. He also brings up the Landon Donovan goal from 2010.
Wambach then meets with Glen Johnson, a former player for Chelsea and the British national team. She continues the story of the stolen trophy by showing him the ransom note that was written for it. Johnson tells Abby that he wouldn’t pay the ransom if it were his trophy.
Wambach continues the story, with old clips and photos, which saw a meeting in which police were going to fake paying the ransom. However, the man they met with didn’t actually have the trophy and claimed to just be a middle man.
To finish the story, Abby’s final guest is Pickles, a dog and professional good boy. Together, they reenact the moment in which a man walking his dog came across the trophy, wrapped like a package, after his dog sniffed it out. The dog’s name was Pickles and his collar and his own 1966 World Cup medal hang in the National Football Museum in Manchester.
The story amazingly doesn’t end there though as the trophy was permanently awarded to Brazil after they became the first team to win the World Cup three times. There, it was stolen again and has never been found.
This is a fascinating story and Abby’s Places does a great job in telling it. This is one of the strongest episodes of this series as it does a good job sticking to its primary topic while also allowing interesting guests to talk about their experiences with soccer. It’s also the only episode to include a professional good boy and that earns it some extra points in my book.
You can watch Abby’s Places on ESPN+ now. Fans can subscribe to ESPN+ for just $6.99 a month and can cancel at any time.