Adidas Tricolore () was the official match ball of

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The Tricolore was officially unveiled in December 1997, being the first colorized ball used in a

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

.Tricolore - así se llama la nueva estrella
on FIFA.com, 25 Dec 1997

Overview

The tricolour flag and cockerel, traditional symbols of France were used as inspiration for the design. Made by

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized in all lowercase since 1949) is a German athletic apparel and footwear corporation headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany. It is the largest sportswear manufacturer in Europe, and the second largest in the ...

, it was the first multi-coloured ball to be used in the tournament's final stage and was also the final World Cup ball to bear the classic

Tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...

design, introduced in the 1978 tournament. The design of blue triads decorated with cockerel motifs was adopted to represent the colours of the

flag of France The national flag of France () is a Tricolour (flag), tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue (Flag terminology#Description of standard flag parts and terms, hoist side), white, and red. The design was adopted after the French Rev ...

.ADIDAS TRICOLORE: WORLD CUP 1998
on Capital Balls, 14 Dec 2016 Tricolore was also the first Adidas World Cup match ball manufactured outside of Europe (made in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

) since the 1970

Adidas Telstar Telstar is a football made by Adidas. The iconic 32-panel alternating black-and-white design of the ball, based on the work of Eigil Nielsen, has since become a global standard design used to portray a football in different media. History The ba ...

. "Tricolore" means "three-colored" in French. More than twenty roughs had been proposed by the Adidas design team before the definitive version was approved. The aim was to amalgamate symbols of the French culture and heritage, adopting the colors used in the French Revolution. The

Gallic rooster The Gallic rooster (, ) is a national symbol of France as a nation, as opposed to Marianne representing France as a state and its values: the Republic. A rooster, in a different pose, is also used as the symbol of the Wallonia and the French Co ...

and the

TGV The TGV (; , , 'high-speed train') is France's intercity high-speed rail service. With commercial operating speeds of up to on the newer lines, the TGV was conceived at the same period as other technological projects such as the Ariane 1 rocke ...

were some of the symbols chosen to represent the French identity on the ball. ''Adidas Tango Argentina'', that was built using the same technology of Adidas Tricolore, was used as official match ball of

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; ), known officially as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Betano for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Argentina and the highest level of the Argentine football league system. Organ ...

until 2003–04 Argentine Primera División.

References

{{FIFA World Cup official match balls Tricolore 1998 FIFA World Cup Products introduced in 1998