- Arsenal ready to accelerate efforts to sign Rice this summer
- Arsenal lead race to sign Turkish starlet Arda Guler
- Arsenal closing in on a deal to sign Moises Caicedo
- Arsenal contemplating summer swoop for Romeo Lavia
- Arsenal keeping tabs on Leeds star Wilfried Gnonto
- Arsenal target Caicedo likely to leave Brighton this summer
- Arsenal ready to rival Barcelona to sign Joao Cancelo
- Arsenal plotting summer swoop for Inter star Calhanoglu
- Arsenal plotting summer swoop for Premier League quartet
- Arsenal predicted line-up vs Wolverhampton Wanderers
The Return of ADIDAS Telstar
In 2018 in Russia players will be kicking the new Adidas Telstar 18, a reimagining of the first Telstar ball used in 1970 in Mexico which was the first official World Cup ball. Here’s the evolution of the football in the past 48 years and how the Telstar 18 came to be.
Telstar: Mexico 1970
Named after the Telstar satellite, this was the first World Cup ball that featured the legendary Buckminster design with 32 hand-stitched panels – 12 black pentagons and 20 white hexagons – which created the roundest spherical ball at the time.
Telstar Durlast: West Germany 1974
There were no technological advancements since the previous Telstar. They changed the golden branding to black though.
Tango Durlast: Argentina 1978
The same Buckminster style was used in Argentina, with 32 leather panels, but the marking design included 20 panels with black triads creating an optical impression of 12 identical circles.
Tango Espana: Spain 1982
This football introduced a new production technology, a rubber coating over the seams, which made Tango Espana the first water-resistant ball. It was also the last leather World Cup ball.
Azteca: Mexico 1986
This was the first synthetic polyurethane football which was rain-resistant. It could retain its good qualities on wet surfaces. It was also the first ball with a design inspired by the host nation.
Etrusco: Italy 1990
A high-tech football manufactured with the highest quality synthetic fibres. Latex impregnated textiles, neoprene coating and an internal layer of polyurethane foam allowed better form stability and water-resistance.
Questra: USA 1994
This was the first ball that had an outer layer of polystyrene foam. This improved the ball’s waterproof qualities and gave the ball better acceleration and velocity during play.
Tricolore: France 1998
This ball ended the traditional black and white design. As the name suggests, the design was inspired by the colours of the French flag. It also had a thin layer of syntactic foam which gave the ball better rebound characteristics and made it even faster than the Questra.
Fevernova: Korea/Japan 2002
This football had thicker inner layers and improved syntactic foam coating which gave the ball a more precise and predictable flight path.
Teamgeist: Germany 2006
The Buckminster style was now history. A revolutionary propeller design was used reducing seams, ridges and corners to a minimum. This made the ball perfectly round for better accuracy and control.
Jabulani: South Africa 2010
The Jabulani introduced the new grip ‘n’ groove technology and was made by thermally bonding 8 3D panels which further improved the ball’s accuracy and control.
Brazuca: Brazil 2014
The Brazuca had a unique symmetry of six identical panels and a new surface structure improving the ball’s grip, stability and aerodynamics.
Telstar 18: Russia 2018
This is the first smart football with an NFC chip for an interactive experience with the fans. Each ball for this World Cup has a unique identifier giving you exclusive content and information on your smartphone.
This makes placing a bet even more exciting and fun, giving you in-depth details of the match play and a more immersive experience.