History of Balls

The history of soccer balls is one surrounded in a mist of questionable facts and legends, which makes it hard for anyone to say for certain how the soccer ball evolved throughout time. As legend has it, soccer started in a rather grim setting during the middle ages. In Europe and more specifically, in England, the first forms of "mob soccer" were played after public executions, when the head of the poor victim was thrown in the crowd and the mob started kicking it aggressively. With lot's of executions being performed during that period in England, it's easy to understand why the Brits took this sport as their own. Still, leaving legend aside, let's pass on to the fact-based history of soccer balls. Since the history of the soccer game can be traced back to ancient times, it's quite clear that the soccer balls used back then were improvisations made out of daily used materials. The Aztecs used small, bouncy rubber balls in their basketball-soccer game of hoop kicking, whereas Chinese warriors would often enjoy a game of no-rules soccer using sewn up leather balls stuffed with light materials. However, leather soccer balls were a luxury those days (who would spare a fine piece of leather for some silly game, when it could have been used for clothing, making bags out of or using it in armors?). The most common type of soccer ball in ancient times, at least in Europe and Asia, was made out of animal bladder. Since pigs were the most common source of food for winter sustenance, their bladders were often extracted, cleaned, inflated and kicked around. Although pig-bladder soccer balls were quite resistant, they were extremely light and could not have been used for more than a simple game of "hold the ball in the air", so calling them "soccer balls" is an overstatement at best. Good thing THAT particular sport didn't evolve or we would still be playing soccer with balloons. When someone, somewhere had the idea to use stuffed leather in order to create a kicking object, we could very well state that it meant the start of a new era in the history of soccer balls and the soccer game. Leather balls were harder, more controllable and more durable, although not as elastic as the rubber balls used in the Americas. However one of the biggest problems of that period's soccer balls, be they made of leather, rubber or bladder, was that they were highly irregular in shape and size, which made them less controllable. In 1836, Charles Goodyear did us all a favor and patented vulcanized rubber and although his invention was to be used in more important areas at that time, it also helped taking the history of soccer balls one step forward, with the introduction of the first vulcanized rubber soccer balls (which were also designed by Goodyear, reportedly a fan of the game) in 1855. From 1855 until today, the history of the soccer game evolved tremendously and so did its "work object", which evolved more in a century than it did in the entire history of soccer balls prior to this period. Modern technology and the exponentially rising popularity and financial strength of soccer all worked together in bringing state-of-the-art super soccer balls and taking the history of soccer balls one step further. We could say that the trend was always renewed each 4 years, with the introduction of a new World Cup soccer ball. It has been almost a tradition to have a new and improved soccer ball at each World Cup, each with its own characteristics. For example, the World Cup soccer balls used in 2002 in Korea and Japan were lighter than those used as standard before and made out of a material that would be more controllable, favoring technically skilled players and thus, rising the entertainment value. In 2006 at the Germany World Cup, a new soccer ball was introduced, which sparked the anger of many goalkeepers, including veteran Oliver Kahn. The soccer ball, as Kahn and many other goalies would notice, is "built in favor of the striker" meaning that it has several characteristics that make shots stay on the ground and thus, having more chances to hit the goal. On the other side of the barricade, many strikers stated that the 2006 World Cup soccer ball was extremely comfortable to shoot and that it didn't have the usual unintentional mid-air swerve that most other balls had.