Adidas Telstar 18: First Purported Look At Official Russia 2018 World Cup Match Ball (Leaked Photo)

Chris Wright

26th, October 2017

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Embed from Getty Images

Should you be interested, purported images of the official Adidas match ball of the 2018 World Cup in Russia have been leaked all over social media.

According to the unfalteringly reliable moles over at Footy Headlines, the 2018 ball is a retro-tinged throwback to the classic Adidas World Cup balls of the early 1970s, namely the Telstar, which was used at the 1970 and 1974 tournaments before being replaced by the Tango in 1978.

Dubbed the ‘Telstar 18’, the latest incarnation retains the Telstar’s staple monochrome palette but features an updated ‘pixelated’ graphic that actually confuses the eye a little bit…

Hardly the subtlest re-imagining, now is it? For Pies’ money, those angular black splodges are straying very close to ‘eye sore’ territory.

Still, anything’s better than the Jabulani.