Ball enthusiasts have been keeping out a watchful eye for news about what Adidas have in store with their design for the 2026 World Cup football.
The German manufacturer has provided the official match ball for every edition of the World Cup since 1970, going all the way back to the classic Telstar.
Adidas are yet to officially unveil the ball - but there have been claims of leaked images that, if accurate, would suggest what we can expect to see next summer.
The World Cup 2026 match ball will be 'The Trionda'
The ball apparently takes many of its construction cues from 2014's four-panel Brazuca, which ranked among our greatest 50 footballs of all time after it successfully solved the issues of the World Cup's previous effort, the Jabulani.
That 2010 version was the infamous 'too round' ball that swerved unpredictably and led to complaints from players (particularly goalkeepers, let's be honest) who struggled to read the flight of the ball accurately.
Funnily enough, Adidas have long since decided that making the ball behave less like a petrol station flyaway is probably a good idea, and it seems likely we can expect them to stick to that path for 2026 as well.
Footy Headlines claim to have a series of leaked images of the ball's cosmetic design, which - predictably - ties in to this edition of the World Cup being the first to be hosted by three countries.
Accordingly, the ball is claimed to be called the 'Trionda', from the Latin 'tri', meaning 'three', and the Spanish 'onda', meaning 'vibe'.
Each of Canada, Mexico and the United States are represented in the design through three different coloured sections that meet up on one side of the ball in a tri-coloured outline of a curved triangle...or more accurately, in a shape something like the insignia of the Klingon empire. We're sure that's exactly what Adidas was going for.
The three sections are red, blue and green, which intuitively, represent Canada, the USA and Mexico respectively.
The red Canadian section features a maple leaf design, the blue American section has stars on it, and the green section features a more abstract design that seems to ahve been inspired by traditional Mexican art styles.
From the images available, it appeared the obverse of the ball from the Klingon logo is another three-panel convergence of the three colours in the form of red, blue and green panels - each bearing an essential part of the ball's branding.
The green section bears the 'Trionda' name and the 'official match ball' text, the blue panel contains the 2026 World Cup logo, and the red section has a big Adidas logo in it.
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