Ball for FIFA WORLD CUP REVEALED

Earlier, this week Adidas, the official sponsor for the FIFA world Cup 2018, revealed the official ball for the tournament, which is going to take place next year in Russia. The ball which has been given the name “Telstar 18” is a modern take on a classic. The Telstar was the official ball of the 1970 World Cup, which was held in Mexico. It was Adidas’s first tournament ball and was designed with the utmost effort and brilliance. The World Cup in 2018, is a really special occasion to the country of Russia, because they have revamped their old Summer Olympics Stadium, which was used to host the Olympics back in 1980, to make way for the biggest football tournament in the world.  

The Telstar does have some history behind it. It was the official ball of the 1970 and the 1974 World Cup, both of which hold great memories for two great National Teams, Pele’s Brazil in 1970 and Franz Beckenbauer’s West Germany. It name means the Star of Television, and it was made to look dashing in black and white, because the concept of a color TV did not exist during that time.

Former international players such as Zinedine Zidane, Xabi Alonso, Allesandro Del Piero, Lukas Podolski and also Kaka, who recently retired from all forms of football. The final presentation of the ball was done by Argentinian international and Barcelona forward, Lionel Messi, who is also a brand ambassador for Adidas. After trying out the ball for the first time, Lionel Messi said that he would love to test it out on the pitch sometime. He also mentioned that he liked the color and the design of the ball. The whole presentation of the ball event was carried out by FIFA, in collaboration with Adidas.

The ball celebrates his 48^th football anniversary next year, and in honour of that the makers of the ball have tried and added their own twist to it, to keep up with modern times. The ball took a long time to be made, and the makers knew that one of the most iconic footballs of all time needed something this time to make it worth remembering.

Roland Rommler, the Category Director of Football Hardware in Adidas, answered the questions about the press regarding the ball. He said, that developing the Telstar 18, while trying to stick to the original design was an exciting challenge for them. He added that the Telstar 18 would include a new panel design as well as have a new NFC chip embedded in it.

The NFC chip would allow consumers to interact with the ball using a smartphone. They could just link both the phone and the football together, opening the door for new avenues. The NFC chip also allows location services for the ball, and Adidas believes that this would generate more and more excitement as the World Cup approaches.