In every World Cup tournament the official ball is different, more advanced and generally a bit better than its predecessor. The Jabulani World Cup 2010 ball seems like a miss though, and most players are complaining about it after playing with the ball for the first time. The technical characteristics of the Jabulani are impressive, but when the ball is actually on the field various problems arise.
Usually the players that complain about new balls are of course the goalkeepers. The official balls keep getting faster, smaller, and more precise, making the job of a goalkeeper much more difficult. But the Jabulani World Cup 2010 ball has been named as the worst ball of the last years from players of all positions in the field.
Italian striker Giampaolo Pazzini says that the Jabulani ball is tragic, and resembles a….supermarket plastic ball: “This ball is really bad and will be a disaster to all of us. It’s not a problem just for the goalkeepers but for other players too. It keeps changing direction when up in the air. When a long ball is coming and you go for the header the Jabulani changes course at the very last second and you miss the chance. This ball is similar to the ones sold at supermarkets.”
More complaints for the Jabulani World Cup ball were heard by players like Iker Casillas, Júlio César, Luís Fabiano, Giampaolo Pazzini and Andrés Iniesta. The Jabulani has been called “weird”, “terrible”, and even “a disaster” by these players, with Fabiano saying that “It’s like someone else is controlling the ball, it suddenly changes direction”. Hugo Lloris calls the official World Cup ball trouble: “You can score from almost everywhere with this ball, it is definitely big trouble”.
The only players that are not complaining about the Jabulani are from Germany, with Michael Ballack even saying that “it is a fantastic ball”. But of course Adidas happens to be their sponsor, and the company made some comments recently regarding this matter: “We started passing the ball around in December, and first impressions were absolutely positive. All the finalist teams of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa have received Jabulani balls for many months now to have enough time to practice with and get used to the ball. It seems that they didn’t take the opportunity to play with the ball right away, but waited all this time to give the Jabulani a try.”
World Cup officials agree that the Jabulani ball is the most precise ball ever made, but I’m not sure we can value their opinion more than that of professional football players.
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Playing with new ball at high tension tournament is not a good sign for players …..their point of view is right… so these to be tested first in domestic games……