BERLIN -- The World Cup winners' podium used at the 2006 tournament in Germany has been found abandoned at Berlin's Olympiapark, near the Olympiastadion where the final was played.
On July 9, 2006, following a turbulent final featuring a red card for France captain Zinedine Zidane in his last competitive match, Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro stood on the podium and received the trophy from Horst Kohler, then the German president.
Eleven years later, the podium is slowly falling apart in bushes in the park.
"I can't tell you how long it's been there," Martin Pallgen, the spokesperson for Berlin's senate department for sports and the interior, told ESPN FC.