The Champions League is back. On the morning of the day the knockout stages commence adidas have revealed the 'Finale Istanbul' which lands as the official match ball for the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League knockout stages. Drawing its inspiration from the city that will host the final – Istanbul.
The 2020 final will travel to where East and West merge on May 30th, and the intricate design celebrates that with a hand drawn artistic interpretation of a map of Istanbul, which uniquely bridges the two continents of Europe and Asia. The Official Match Ball of the final has been designed to highlight the famous stars of the UEFA Champions League.
Nodding to Istanbul’s deep culture of art, the carefully placed white stars contrast to a hand printed artwork of a map of the city which can be followed and adorns the rest of the ball. At the centre of this is the Bosporus narrow, a natural waterway that flows through the country and city itself to merge East and West.
Fusing art and football, adidas designers looked to more traditional methods to bring the map pattern to life, first crafting it by carving in wood, before printing with lino to blend heritage and innovation. The striking purple colour palette is inspired by the hues of the setting sun over the river.
The ball features the latest adidas performance technology to help ensure Europe’s top can perform at their best during the UEFA Champions League Final. Offering the same high-performance structure and panels as recent iterations of the iconic star ball, an outer texture coating gives a secure grip and complete control while the panels are thermally bonded, with more sustainable glue, to provide a seamless surface for an improved first touch. Equally distributed colour and the star formation are arranged across the ball to ensure peak performance and enhance aerobatic stability.
Shop the full adidas UCL Fianle Istanbul footballs collection at prodirectsoccer.com
