The official match ball of the 2010 FIFA World Cup was called Jabulani (meaning, “to celebrate and to have fun”). It was designed using 11 colors referring to not only the 11 players in a team but also the 11 languages and 11 colonies located in South Africa. The ball consists of only 8 panels and was unpopular with players. On long range shots it shifted in the air, making the flight of the ball unpredictable. Bizarrely, there is high demand (and high prices) for the Jabulani today, due to its popularity among foot-golfers, since the Jabulani can roll in the grass for longer distances than other recent balls.

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The new ball for the Germany World Cup was called Teamgeist. It was the first World Cup ball made by Adidas that no longer consisted of 32, but 14 panels. Due to less panels, they became significantly bigger, making it less likely that the player would kick the ball at a joint. According to Adidas, this would lead to much more accurate shots. The balls used in the World Cup final came with golden finish symbolizing the World Cup trophy. This practise is still in use.

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The Fevernova was a transition ball between the classic and the modern World Cup balls. Even though it kept its 32 panel structure, it no longer consisted of the famous Tango panels. Moreover, it was the very last hand sewn World Cup ball. It had gone through a lot of improvements related to its material, since it consisted of more layers than its predecessors, but despite this, this ball became even more thin. This ball has both the hexagon patterns as well as the air bubbles as seen in case of the Tricolore four years earlier. The name of the ball refers to the football fever in Asia.

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The Tricolore was the first coloured World Cup ball ever. It was named after the French flag and it is the French cock that you see on the famous Tango Panels, including the red Adidas logo on the top of the cock’s head. Many believe that due to its design, this ball is the most beautiful and imaginative Adidas ball ever. The surface of the ball is covered by tiny hexagons, that refer to the air bubbles in the coating. This made the ball even more flexible while being kicked.

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The Questra, meaning the “Quest of Stars,” was inspired by its hosts: the stars on the US flag and the 25th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission when the first human walked on the moon. The ball integrated the star components into the classic Tango panels making it the last black and white World Cup ball. The Questra was manufactured by five different materials and it had a flexible but durable outer layer and was perfectly waterproof. This ball became very successful — Adidas used the Questra for both the 1996 Euro Cup and the 1996 Olympic games, but with a colorful design.

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The official match ball of the Italia 90 joined the Tango series, and it was even introduced for the Pope in the Vatican before the tournament. The Tango panels were decorated with Etrusc lions. The ball was made of multi layer synthetic material making the ball waterproof. However, the ball took some blame for the low amount of goals scored during this World Cup. Due to the high demand, the ball was produced in many countries but only the version made in France was used during the Italia 90.

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The official match ball of the 1986 FIFA World Cup was called Adidas Azteca and was the first World Cup ball to be named and decorated completely in honour of the host nation. Ever since, Adidas has kept this practice for all of the following World Cup balls. This ball was not made of real leather but instead, it was the very first official World Cup match ball to be made of synthetic materials. This new construction made it possible for the ball to recover its original shape immediately after being kicked and could retain it for a long time, even at high altitudes, on rough surfaces or during wet conditions.

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Due to the indisputable success of the Tango in the 1978 World Cup and the 1980 Euro Cup, Adidas did not design and produce a revolutionary new ball for the Spanish World Cup in 1982. Instead they made a ball called Tango España, with only minor changes from its predecessors. This ball was the first Adidas World Cup ball to be name inspired by the host country. The ball was almost identical to the previous Tango. It was once again composed of 32 hand sewn panels, with the same black and white Tango design: the curved triangles were printed on every hexagon, which formed circles around the 12 pentagonal panels, giving the ball a great visual illusion of 12 identical circles.

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For the 1978 FIFA World Cup Adidas launched a brand new model with a revolutionary design: The Tango, inspired by the classic dance from Argentina. The design consisted of 20 black and promptly curved triangles, each one printed onto the white coloured surface of each hexagonal panel. Since the pentagonal panels were white coloured too, the triangles created a series of black and elegant circles on a white surface. When the ball was rotating, a nice effect was created by the black circles, which was visually very attractive. The Tango became extremely popular and it became associated with the Adidas brand itself — these two words were interchangeable in the 80’s. No wonder why the Tango design was applied on official Adidas match balls until the 2000 Euro Cup.

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The fact that Adidas did not produce a new design for the 1974 FIFA World Cup is a testament of how successful the initial Telstar balls became. Adidas even kept the Telstar name, only the text on the balls were updated. The previous balls became heavier when wet, which made them much more difficult to control — players had to kick them harder to reach the same distance. The new balls were coated by a stronger Durlast layer, though, in order to prevent water coming into the ball through the seams. This changed the picture of the games significantly.

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