My daughters (Sally and Gabby) and I visited the adidas headquarters in Portland yesterday and it got us thinking about the adidas FIFA World Cup balls.

           

My favorite World Cup ball is the Tango.  I prefer both the Rosario (1978) and Espana (1982) versions and both bring back great childhood memories for me as well as starting an iconic look that lasted for six World Cups.  Sally prefers the Jabulani and Gabby prefers the Brazuca as both played with those balls with their youth teams.

The FIFA World Cup balls have constantly changed over the years to improve safety and performance, but 1970 was a huge shift.

The 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico was the first to be televised around the globe, so FIFA had Adidas design the first ever ball specific for the tournament.   The Telstar ball was named after the Telstar satellite.  12 of the 32 panels were black to make it more visible on black and white television.  The black and white pattern helped players to see the spin of the ball in the air and it still is a common design for balls.

The Telestar - used in Mexico for the 1970 World Cup - was the first design for the tournament

An updated version of the Telstar is being used in Russia in 2018.

Adidas also designed an Official Match Ball for the knockout stage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, the Telstar Mechta.

The name Mechta translates as ‘dream’ or ‘ambition’ in Russian and has the same design elements as the Telstar 18, the ball used throughout the group stage.

Below are the rest of the adidas FIFA World Cup balls, since 1970 in Mexico…which one is your favorite?

The Telstar – Mexico 1970

The Telestar - used in Mexico for the 1970 World Cup - was the first design for the tournament

The Telstar Durlast – Germany 1974

For the 1974 competition, adidas replaced gold branding with black for the official ball

The 'Tango' was used in 1978 as hosts Argentina won the World Cup final against Holland

The Tango Espana was composed of 32 hand sewn panels with the same design

The Azteca, used for Mexico 1986 represented a huge advance in the standard of the ball

The Etrusco was used for Italia 90 - where Germany beat Argentina 1-0 in the final

The Questra - at USA 94 - was inspired by space technology and America’s 'quest for the stars'

The Tricolore used red-white-blue of the France flag and new 'syntactic foam'

 The Fevernova – Japan/South Korea 2002

The Fevernova ball for Japan/South Korea in 2002 sold over six million replicas worldwide

The 2006 World Cup ball is widely considered as one of the best used for the competition

If the 2006 ball was a success, the Jabulani for the 2010 World Cup has a terrible reputation

After the Jabulani, pressure was on to ensure that professionals were liked the 'Brazuca'
Telestar Russia 2018

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