These Bennett custom awards were created for the Copa America 2015 soccer tournament, one of the most prestigious and widely viewed sporting events in the world. The awards were commissioned for the MasterCard Man of the Match awards that are given to each game’s most outstanding player.

Copa America is an international soccer (football) competition between the men’s national teams of CONMEBOL, the South American Football Confederation. CONMEBOL is one of the 6 FIFA continental confederations, and oldest continental confederation in the world.

Copa America, formerly known as the South American Football Championship, determines the continental champion of South America. 12 national teams compete in each tournament – the 10 teams that are part of CONMEBOL, and 2 at-large teams selected from other FIFA confederations.

The Copa America 2015 tournament is the 44th edition of this football competition. It is being held in Chile between June 11 and July 4, 2015.

For the MasterCard Man of the Match awards, Bennett Awards worked collaboratively with the design firm SOBO Concepts (soboconcepts.com) to create a new, unique custom award design based on the Copa America 2015 logo. These stunning awards are in the shape of a disk, or circular shield, with a diameter of 15”. The shields are handcrafted from Brazilian Mahogany. These shields use CNC milling to create recessed and raised areas within the surface of the shield reflecting key elements of the Copa America 2015 logo. The raised areas display the 4 human visuals used in the logo. These visuals are based on Chile folk culture, and represent Celebration, Passion, Surpass and Triumph.  The recessed areas reveal the Copa America Chile 2015 text, along with other iconic design elements utilized in the logo’s visual identity. The recessed images in the shield are stained black (using an environmentally safe stain), creating a two-tone contrast with the remaining raised areas of natural wood.

The center of the shield holds a pewter medallion in the shape of a star, another icon used in the logo. The medallions have the MasterCard logo, Copa America 2015 logo, and words “Man of the Match” molded into them. These recessed elements have an antique finish, creating contrast with the brushed pewter finish on the main surface of the medallions.