In a game of ‘Zoek de Nederlander’ (‘Find the Dutch person’) and a story we should have run a while back, Radio Netherlands informs us that a Dutch woman at Adidas is behind the design of the World Cup football ball, better known in Zulu as Jabulani.
Senior Designer Football Janneke van Oorschot who works in Germany for Adidas has been around the block when it comes to designing all kinds of high profile balls. Have a look at the Jo’bulani, a gold variant of the Jabulani that will be used in the finals in Johannesburg, also known as the City of Gold (and Jozi, Joburg, etc.)
As for the usual negative comments about every World Cup ball, the Jabulani got its share of criticism to which most people, including Van Oorschot, basically says ‘this too shall pass’.
Have a look at this video with your kids. It’s great to see how these balls are made.
(Links: rnw.nl, sportsfilter)