Silver Trophy (with English silver marks) with engraving. Tel-Aviv, 1928.
"The 'Mond' Trophy, presented by Lord Melchett. The winner: 1928, HaPo'el Tel-Aviv.
In 1928, Lord Melchett (Sir Alfred Mond) headed the first attempt at forming a top team of Jewish players to represent Eretz Yisrael in other countries. On his tour to Palestine in 1928, he announced that he was willing to allot 2,000 pounds for a Hebrew team, which would tour England and hold soccer tournaments with British teams.
On June 14, 1928, the four top teams in Israel at that time took part in a tournament: Maccabi Tel Aviv, HaPo'el Tel Aviv, HaPo'el Haifa, and Maccabi Hashmonai Jerusalem, intending that the winning team would fly to England. HaPo'el Tel Aviv won this trophy.
Various confrontations arose about technical details related to the team's preparation (such as, the waving of the Hebrew flag, and the manner of determining the team). Moreover, the media criticized the level of soccer in Eretz Yisrael and people were apprehensive about adverse results that were liable to shame Jewish sports. Therefore, it was decided to postpone the trip to England for a year and to apply to Lord Mond to send a coach from England to train the top team. A coach never arrived and this trophy is almost the only evidence of this story. Height: 25.5 cm. Maximal width: 21.5 cm. Good condition. To the best of our knowledge – this is the first Eretz Yisrael soccer trophy.