Learn about the adidas Telstar 18 – the official ball at the 2018 World Cup

Big and most interested football tournament on the planet World Cup 2018 The place in Russia is coming very close and the official tournament ball of the tournament as usual remains one of the hottest topics of discussion. The official name is adidas Telstar 18Although this ball has a nostalgic direction and color, the inside contains advanced technology that has never been seen before. As usual, the product is designed and manufactured by adidas, an important FIFA partner and official FIFA World Cup ball supplier since 1970.

Like Brazuca in the 2014 World Cup, Telstar 18 has 6 pieces, while the Jabulani 2010 World Cup is eight pieces (all less than the traditional ball with 32 pieces). The new ball is produced in Sialkot city of Pakistan. The outsourcing company is the world’s largest producer of hand-sewn balls, with production up to 40-60 million pieces a year. Notably, the ball from the previous World Cup was also produced by a company in the city of Sialkot.

Recall a little of the original Telstar ball (see photo below) that made its debut in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico as the first World Cup tournament to be shown on television. This is also the first time that adidas has co-produced balls for this famous tournament. Named after an American artificial satellite that was accidentally destroyed by Russian troops during the Cold War, the ball marks the first use of easy black and white hexagonal leather panels. more observable when watching on TV. This image of black and white has since become the unmistakable global icon of football in general.

Back at Telstar 18, whose name is almost identical to the 1970’s ball, this rookie appearance is similar to the main black and white color, but the pattern is stylized in a pixelated style. expressing the “digital” and high-tech properties of the new age.

Talking a little about the main biological material of the ball, Arlanxeo, the official producer of this ball, in conjunction with adidas, successfully researched Keltan Eco – the world’s first ecological rubber made from extracted ethylene. Made from sugar cane. For the first time in world football history, the soccer ball is made from eco-friendly materials with up to 70% biological ingredients. This eco-friendly material keeps elasticity, amorphous structure and high cross-linking density, withstands extreme temperatures, and improves shape resilience. The rubber sleeve of the ball is also newly designed to ensure a stable performance in use. The outside of the ball is also coated with a special plastic.

Before being announced and officially put into use, Telstar 18 underwent a series of rigorous testing procedures on all three continents at various altitudes and temperatures ranging from below freezing to more than 100 degrees Celsius. Shape recovery is tested and ensured by shooting the ball out of a gun straight into the metal wall with continuous intensity thousands of times at speeds of more than 50km. /H.

However, the detail that people who love technology especially interested in lies inside the ball and has been accumulated, researched and developed by adidas for many years. Specifically, an electronic NFC chip (near field connection protocol) is integrated and mounted inside the ball, allowing the referee department to interact with the ball via smartphones. With this technology, statistics around the game as well as data about a player’s flight speed, rolling speed, distance traveled, or shot force can be easily collected and analyzed.

To interact with this NFC microprocessor of the Telstra 18 ball, Android smartphone users only need to enable NFC communication and touch the back of the phone to the NFC logo on the ball to make the connection. For iPhone users running iOS, Telstra 18 is only compatible with iPhone 7/7 Plus / 8/8 Plus / X running iOS 11 and above and users must use a third-party NFC communication app (because iOS doesn’t support NFC connectivity apps available).

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