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Clutch Partner: City business given opportunity to engrave trophy At final World Cup match

By Sara Holthouse 7 min read

 The finishing touch to this year's World Cup came courtesy of a Jamestown business.

The FIFA World Cup wrapped up a few weeks ago, and at the end of every match one player was awarded the Superior Player of the Match trophy. This trophy for the final match, awarded to Terran Forres, who scored the winning goal for Spain, was designed by Victor Solomon. Forres' name was engraved on the trophy by none other than Ink Wells, a Jamestown business that had the opportunity to be a vendor at the World Cup.

John Centi, Ink Wells owner, said the business does a lot of on-site customization work for other brands. Its main work is traveling to specific events and doing custom engravings and similar projects in front of guests.

"We were asked by one of our high-end clients, Michelob Ultra, that sponsors the Superior Player of the Match for the World Cup and they do a trophy at the end of every single match," Centi said. "There were 104 total matches that they did. Each player of the match, which is essentially the MVP of the match, gets one of the trophies."

Centi added at the final match they wanted to have the player's name added to the trophy and presented to them, which is what his business got to do. Having done some projects for Michelob Ultra in the past, Centi said there was trust there that led to them being asked.

The day of the final match Centi got to be on site in the tunnel where the athletes travel in and out of the match. Everything was set up in the FIFA office and they waited until the end of the match when the Player of the Match was selected and once Forres was announced as the MVP after scoring the winning goal, it was sent to Centi and he then engraved the trophy. Getting to that point, though, ended up being slightly chaotic for Centi.

"It was kind of a last minute ask and we didn't have much time to prepare," Centi said. "There was a lot of pressure to handle this engraving. We only had one shot; there were no back up trophies for this one. Though they had a lot of other trophies that they gave away to the players in the other matches, this one was different."

The key difference, Centi said, was that this trophy was mirror polished stainless steel. That variable creates a significant challenge with engraving, he added, with the material being sensitive and there are a lot of things that had the potential to go wrong with it because of that.

"We had to go into it with no testing," Centi said. "I wasn't able to get a sample of the material. I wasn't able to get my hands on an exact replica of the material and had to trust what I had learned from past engravings and use my best judgment on the best quality result that would be produced."

Centi's intention had been to go in the day before, make sure his engraving machine had arrived as he had had to ship it there beforehand because of security reasons, and get prepared with the machine, trophy and set up. But, that was not to be, as his flight on that Saturday, the day before the World Cup finale, was delayed a few times and ultimately cancelled due to significant storms and the Canadian wildfire smoke.

"Hundreds of flights were cancelled because of that, and mine was one of them," Centi said. "So I didn't realize and didn't leave Buffalo airport until about 9 p.m., came back to Jamestown, and the morning of the World Cup, I woke up at 2 a.m. and drove to New York to Met Life Stadium," Centi said. "I left at 2 a.m. and arrived at 8 a.m. just in time to be ready to get everything set up for that experience. So it was kind of a crazy day overall travel-wise and pressure-wise."

Upon arriving, already running high on nerves, Centi found himself where all of the athletes and high level celebrities were, meeting some such as Tom Cruise and Mr Beast. This elevated his mental state even more, he said, calling it a "crazy elevated experience" for him.

Everything with the engraving went well, even with the crazy circumstances beforehand, and it became an experience that Centi said was irreplaceable.

"I think about it, like, to actually engrave the Player of the Match trophy for the World Cup, only a handful of people will do that in my lifetime, really," Centi said. "Between them not doing it in some of the years and the World Cup happening every four years, to have that experience means so much to me. It's an irreplaceable experience that I just can't believe I was chosen to do, to be honest."

Additionally, he said he was humbled by the experience, especially with it being a high level challenge for which he did not get to prepare. Everything Centi has done in the past ended up being the preparation, he said, and the trophy engraving came out with a high quality.

"It was one hit, one shot, and it turned out perfect," Centi said. "It felt really good to be able to experience that. It's something that I am just so thankful for, really."

Centi said, business wise, it also shows that Ink Wells is trusted with types of moments that cannot be replaced, and that they have a lot of trust from companies that bring them out to do projects like this, and that trust means the world to him.

Centi and Ink Wells have done similar things in the past, being asked to represent New Era at the Winter Olympics with the Team USA Welcome Center, another high level experience that Centi said was different but similar in the way that it was also a top-tier sporting event that they got to be at. The feeling was also similar, and doing both the World Cup and Olympics in the same year was something that was crazy for Centi. He added that doing something on a high level with no testing or preparation time like the World Cup trophy was something he had never done, though.

"What I've done in the past led me to being ready for this, even when I couldn't be fully prepared for this," Centi said. "All of my past experiences, all of my trust and my instinct, all of my previous experience leading up to it, even with the different variables led me to going into it with confidence and knowing I was ready for it and ready to do that one, single engraved trophy that was irreplaceable."

Being born and raised in Jamestown, Centi said it is important for people to know that coming from this area and doing things that they are passionate about can lead to great places as long as a person stays on their path and true to what they believe in and work hard.

"You can really come from Jamestown and go to the FIFA World Cup final," Centi said. "You can go from being here to whatever you put your mind to really."

Believing in yourself is something Centi said is very important, saying that following a passion can lead to a great experience.

"When you feel the most nervous about something that you want to do, if you're hesitant or maybe have some anxiety holding you back, if you go into that and experience it and go through that moment where you're feeling the most fear, that's where you find the greatest moments on the other side of that," Centi said.

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