Adidas Soccer Ball - The Most Famous of Soccer Balls

An Adidas soccer ball has dominated the pitch at the World Cup, and on most local soccer fields as well.

The soccer ball changed drastically over its lifetime. But the greatest change has been in the last 40 years. Let's go back to 1970 with...

The Adidas Telstar

• First soccer ball to use the bucky ball design. 12 black pentagons, and 20 white hexagons.


• This 32 panel design became the standard for soccer balls.


• The black and white panels were to see the ball easier on tv.


• Official match ball of the 1970 and 1974 World Cups.


• Telstar = Television Star


• Completely made of leather. Synthetics have not yet appeared.

Then along came the...

Adidas Tango

Little did anyone know that it would become the official World Cup ball for the next 20 years. It's triad design provided the impression that the ball had 12 circles on its face that were identical. The triad design would then be adjusted for the country that played host to the World Cup.

• Official match ball of the 1978, World Cup.


• Most expensive ball in history.


• Most popular soccer ball design ever.

The Tango ball had a long and useful life-span. But eventually it had to change too. As most things do. The next step in the Adidas soccer ball revolution was the...

Adidas Fevernova

The colors, color usage, and the design were taken from Asian culture, as Korea - Japan prepared to host the 2002 World Cup.

• Criticized openly as being too light.


• Some say early round upsets were because of the ball.


• Was a 3 layer design that provided more accurate and predictable flight.


• First ball to have a foam layer.

The next change came when Adidas introduced the...

Adidas +Teamgeist

Adidas added the "+" for trademark reasons, as the word "teamgeist" means "team spirit" and was not allowed to be used for a trademark.

• First ball to have 14 panels instead of the standard 32.


• Those 14 panels were curved.


• The panels were bonded together, not stitched, making it almost perfectly waterproof.


• Uniformly round to improve accuracy of flight even more.


• Developed by the cooperation of Adidas and the Molten Corporation.

It doesn't matter which one you prefer, Adidas can provide a high quality ball for your soccer game.

Wayne MacLean has over 30 years of experience in the game of soccer. As a soccer coach, soccer player, soccer referee, and all-around soccer fan, Wayne is now adding a new dimension to his love of soccer. He now writes many articles and creates soccer videos to help those that are involved in soccer, are new to soccer, or just want to know more about soccer. Check out my Adidas Soccer Ball [http://www.soccer.information-universe.com/adidas-soccer-ball/adidas-soccer-ball.php] for more great soccer information for yourself or your team.

The Soccer Drill Sargeant