Mandela, who led South Africa out of the apartheid era in 1994, last held the gold trophy with tears rolling down his face in 2004, when the tournament was awarded to Africa for the first time.
Mandela, widely known here by his clan name Madiba, and in frail health at the age of 91, rarely makes public appearances and was handed the trophy at the offices of his foundation in Johannesburg by FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke.
"Nelson Mandela was one of the architects of this FIFA World Cup ...Madiba is the symbol of this new democratic South Africa. For us there was no way that the trophy would arrive in the country and not be brought first to Mandela," Valcke said.
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