Adidas Tricolore () was the official match ball of

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for t ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

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

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

.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 as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufacture ...

, 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 as the result of a combina ...

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 (french: link=no, drapeau français) is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue ( hoist side), white, and red. It is known to English speakers as the ''Tricolour'' (), although the flag of Irela ...

.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

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

) since the 1970 Adidas Telstar. "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 French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. The Gallic rooster and the

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were some of the symbols chosen to represent the French identity on the ball.

References

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