Lionel Messi unveiled the official match ball which will be used in the World Cup in Qatar, in the week before the draw for the tournament.
The 14th consecutive match ball supplied for a World Cup by the manufacturer is the Al Rihla.
Since the first World Cup in 1930 in Uruguay, there have been 22 different ball designs, with the Adidas era beginning with the Telstar ball at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.
Since the first World Cup was held in 1930, the materials and designs used for soccer balls have changed, from a more unsophisticated era to the ultramodern professionalism of today.
We look at the balls used at every World Cup from the first one to the one that will be used in November.
- World Cup finals draw: Date, time, format, seeds
- Stream ESPN FC Daily on ESPN+ (U.S. only)
- Don't have ESPN? Get instant access
There was no official ball produced for the first-ever World Cup, with a number of different designs used throughout the tournament. Unusually, the final between the hosts and rivals Argentina began with a squabble over which country would provide the match ball, leading to a compromise that saw the first half played with Argentina's model of choice, the Tiento, before being swapped out for the Uruguayans. In the second half, Argentina were up by two goals at the interval, but they were unable to hold on and were beaten 4-2 by the debutants of the world. What you will do is make of that.
The Federale was the first World Cup ball to have cotton laces instead of leather ones. If you'll excuse the pun, using softer laces to stitch the ball together made heading the Federale less of a hassle. Frantisek Planicka was the captain of the nation who lost to the hosts in the final.
The Federale ball was similar in appearance to the Coupe du Monde ball with its 13-panel construction, cotton laces and dark brown cowhide outer shell. The edges of the Allen panels were more rounded than the 1934 ball which made it more predictable. It had to be hand-stitched and inflated by a skilled worker.
The official match ball of the World Cup in 1950 saw a minor revolution thanks to the technical advances made during the 12-year gap between tournaments due to World War II. The Duplo T, which featured a rubber valve through which the internal bladder could be inflated by a simple hand pump, replaced the panels and laces of the past. The concept was already used in Argentinian football for many years before it was used at the World Cup.
The first 18-panel leather ball used at a major football tournament was the Swiss World Champion, with a more daring yellow colour and interlocking panels that lend the ball a modern look.
The leather drive belts were initially produced by the Swedish company, which was founded in 1914. The Top Star was chosen in a blind test of over 100 designs to be the official ball supplier for the World Cup. Each team was given 30 balls for the tournament. Fontaine scored 13 goals in six matches in Sweden, a record for a single tournament, and he liked it.
From our collection: One of the original CRACK match balls used in the 1962 @FIFAWorldCup in Chile. #football #history pic.twitter.com/58p1Q1GWWR
— FIFA Museum (@FIFAMuseum) March 16, 2017
The Crack was a chrome coloured ball that had a smooth, rounder surface and was better behaved than any other World Cup match ball. It was the last World Cup ball to be produced by a local company, with Senor Custodio Zamora of San Miguel charged with producing it. The Crack was dismissed as inadequate due to its brittleness and waterlogging, leading to a variety of hastilysourced alternatives being used throughout the tournament instead.
After the Crack proved to be anything but, FIFA decided to use established multinational sports companies to supply the World Cup match balls. The English FA selected the Slazenger Challenge 4 Star, a 25-panel ball with a latex valve produced in white, bright orange and yellow, for the tournament, after a blind test. England won the Jules Rimet trophy by beating West Germany 4-2 in extra time. The 1966 ball is being held by the former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The Adidas era began in 1970 with the introduction of the Telstar, a design that came to define what a typical football would look like for decades to come. Telstars were supplied by Adidas for use at the tournament, but they weren't used in every game, with brown and white balls used at some matches as well. The Telstar ball has a two-tone design that makes it easier to follow for people watching matches at home on black-and-white TVs.
The Durlast featured a new, thin coating over the leather panels that improved its resistance against waterlogging and abrasion. Adidas and the West Germany team won the trophy after beating the Netherlands in the final.
The Tango was one of the most popular soccer balls of all time and lasted for many years with only a few minor changes to the design. The Tango had 20 hexagonal hand panels coated in a thin plastic and Durlast to help guard against waterlogging. The graphic design used triangular markings on each panel to create the illusion of white circles all over the surface, which helped players track the spin of the ball through the air more easily.
The Tango design was so popular that it lasted Adidas from 1978 through the 1982 World Cup in Spain and on to the European Championships and Olympic Games of 1988. The Espana edition received only minor updates, though the seams were rubberised to improve its water resistance. The Espana is the last fully leather ball to be used at a World Cup tournament before the synthetic era.
The Azteca was created because Adidas needed a brand new ball for the 1986 World Cup and so they created it. The Azteca was manufactured using 100% synthetic materials and the triangular designs on the panels were inspired by Aztec frescoes and culture. The ball that Diego Maradona punched over the head of England goalkeeper Peter Shilton for his famous "Hand of God" photo is a unique place in football history.
The ancient culture of the World Cup host nation inspired the design of the Etrusco Unico. The Unico ball was gilded with a depiction of the lions heads found in Etruscan sculpture, jewellery, fine art and architecture. The Etrusco Unico was the first ball in the World Cup to have an internal layer of black foam beneath the shell to help protect it against waterlogging and improve the quality of the rebound.
The name Questra conjured up images of man's ancient quest to reach the stars and the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, but it was the latest in a series of Tango clones. The same pentagonal panel design used on the Azteca and Estruco Unico was used on the Questra, which was very similar to the three World Cup match balls that preceded it. The lightest World Cup ball, the Questra, was praised by attacking players for its ability to swerve and curl and by goalkeepers for its unpredictability in the air.
The host nation's traditional colors of red, white and blue were updated to reflect the multi-colored ball used at the World Cup. The cockerel and the flag of France were chosen as the traditional symbols of France to be incorporated into the triad theme. The last World Cup match ball to bear the now-iconic "Tango" aesthetic was the Tricolore.
The new Adidas logo was inspired by the ancient art of calligraphy and consisted of a three-pronged golden shape and red streaks. Despite being constructed using 11 different layers, the ball was widely criticized for being too light and unpredictable due to the airy synthetic foam used as padding inside the rubbery polyurethane exterior.
The 2006 World Cup in Germany was the first tournament in which an alternative design of the official match ball was produced. The Teamgeist was constructed using just 14 synthetic panels to create a rounder, more precise and almost entirely waterproof ball. The golden version was used for the final. Air resistance was reduced to the point that several prominent players complained about the ball's movement in the air, something which was becoming a pre-tournament tradition.
The Jabulani was one of the most troublesome World Cup match balls of all time, and it had a lively name (translation: "be happy"), and an even livelier tendency to dip, swerve and balloon away into the terraces. The surface of the Jabulani was textured with thin ridges and grooves in an effort to improve aerodynamics. The unpredictability of the ball was a concern for several goalkeepers after the opening bouts of the competition. The gold-tinted version of the Jabulani was introduced in 2006 and is now called the final.
The first World Cup ball to be named by public vote was made from six panels of bonding foam and adorned with a colorful graphic inspired by Brazilian bands. With the Jabulani deemed a failure, the focus was on creating an aerodynamically stable ball that performed consistently in all conditions. After two years of testing, the Brazuca was able to avoid the pitfalls of its direct predecessor. For the grand final in Rio de Janeiro, a special version was produced with green, red, and blue flashes replaced by green, gold, and black.
The Telstar design was updated by Adidas for use in Russia. The Telstar was constructed from just six panels and created a rounder, smoother, more consistent surface. The game between France and Australia was interrupted by two balls. The Telstar 18 Mechta was unveiled as an alternative design for the knockout phase. The red speckles on the shell are the only difference.
The Al Rihla is a 20-panel design that Adidas says is inspired by the architecture, art and national flag of Qatar. In order to reduce air resistance in what could be one of the hottest World Cup finals ever, the ball appears completely seamless and the shape of the thermally bonded panels are directly inspired by the sails of the famous Dhow boats.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
