Gisele Bundchen to give trophy to World Cup winner

Normally, the winner of the World Cup receives the trophy from the head of state of the host country. Makes sense, right? Unless, of course, the host country is Brazil, whose president, Dilma Rousseff, is terribly unpopular at the moment. (Appearing at the soccer tournament’s opening ceremony the other night, Rousseff received what might charitably be called a Bronx cheer for spending $11 billion on the World Cup at a time when tens of millions of Brazilians are poor.) So who’ll hand the trophy to the winner? Brazil’s most beautiful export: Gisele Bundchen. We’re told Tom Brady’s supermodel spouse was asked by FIFA to do the job and, barring any riots that would make it unsafe, she will. As for her husband, we’re told he’ll be joining Bundchen in Brazil.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at shanahan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @MarkAShanahan. Meredith Goldstein can be reached at mgoldstein@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @MeredithGoldste.