Messi presents W Cup 2018 ball in Moscow
moscow — Lionel Messi has presented the ball for next year’s World Cup in Russia.
The Telstar 18 has a retro blackand-white design harking back to the original Adidas Telstar ball used for the 1970 World Cup.
Adidas says that in terms of structure, it’s an evolution of the ball used for the last World Cup in 2014.
Chiming with Russia’s history as a pioneer of space flight, the Telstar name originally came from a type of early satellite. However those came from Western nations, and not the then Soviet Union.
Fifa will hope it proves more popular than previous World Cup balls.
Some players complained that the Teamgeist used at the 2006 tournament was too light and had a very different performance when wet.
The Jabulani, used in 2010, was compared to a beach ball by Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas and a “supermarket” ball by Brazil’s Julio Cesar, while the 2014 Brazuca proved more popular.
The original Telstar featured 32 separate pentagonal panels, twelve of which were black to make it more visible in black and white television broadcasts.
Other balls included the Tango (1978), Tango Espana (1982), Azteca (1986), Etrusco (1990), Questra (1994), Tricolore (1998) and Fevernova (2002).
“The Telstar 18 evokes unforgettable memories of the 1970 FIFA World Cup — and of legends like Pele, Gerd Mueller, Giacinto Facchetti, Pedro Rocha and Bobby Moore,” Fifa said. — AP/Reuters