The official ball of the 1998 World Cup "Tricolore" with autographs of Spartak players

An original ball made specifically for the 1998 World Cup games in France. This is indicated by the country of production of the ball – Morocco (balls produced at the same time in Thailand and Pakistan were not used at the 1998 World Cup). The ball is a game ball, took part in one of the matches of Spartak Moscow, after which it was presented to the owner with the autographs of the team. The names and signatures of the champions of the country in 1998 – football players Shirko, Tikhonov, Titov, Parfenov, Romashchenko, etc. are marked on the ball with a pen. A beautiful and quite rare ball, a great gift for any football fan or ball collector!

The official ball of the 1998 World Cup was named Tricolore. The ball got its name thanks to the French flag, which consists of three colors, hence the name tricolor. The ball was decorated, which also consisted of 32 panels, triads of cockerels painted in blue, white and red. There was a complete departure from the old traditional black and white patterns. This is the first official colored ball of the World Cup.The Tricolore ball was used in the finals of the UEFA Cup in 1998, 1999, as well as in the UEFA Super Cup in 1999.

 The tricolor flag and the rooster are the traditional symbols of the French Republic and the symbols of France, the cockerels, the triad, on the ball of their national football team, this was the basis for the name and design of the ball. The logo, name and all other elements were blue. When applying colored elements to the ball, a new printing system was used, thanks to which the colors were much more resistant to friction.

For the first time, a new Adidas logo appears on the ball: the classic shamrock left the Questra ball at the last World Cup held in the USA, and now the famous three stripes appear on the new Tricolore ball over Adidas equioment, the adidas logo, the name of the Adidas company. In addition, the inscription "Equipment" appears under the word Adidas.  Tricolore was the first ball that was not made in France, which was very curious, since the World Cup was held in France. Adidas has stopped producing balls in Europe altogether. As a result, the inscriptions "Made in Morocco", "Made in Pakistan" or "Made in Thailand" began to appear on the balls. Tricolore for the 1998 World Cup in France was made in Morocco. However, the words made in Morocco were printed in very small letters.  In this sense, the ball has lost some of its charm. The phrase "The official ball of the 1998 World Cup" was still in English. The same logo remains on the bottom panel, indicating the pressure and warranty.

Many football fans liked Tricolore and in general, many say it is one of the most elegant balls made by Adidas. But it was the last World Cup model that is based on the Tango design (the most recent of them was the Terrestra manufactured for Euro 2000).

Tricolore was not only an elegant ball, but also very high–tech: it was made of synthetic materials, the inside of the ball was a layer of synthetic foam with a regular matrix of durable micro cells filled with gas.. Due to this, the impact force on the ball was more evenly distributed over its surface, while the ball retained its correct spherical shape and high flight accuracy. However, despite all the innovative innovations, the ball was still sewn by hand.

 From a marketing point of view, Tricolore sold very well. But unlike the 1990 Etrusco Unico and the 1994 Questra, the model was not used at Euro 2000 and the Olympic Games of the same year. Adidas has created other balls for these tournaments. TERRESTRA SILVERSTREAM and ADIDAS GAMARADA respectively. A very important feature on this ball is the "FIFA APPROVED" logo, but this does not definitively indicate the authenticity of the ball. In fact, the most important element is the inscription 202.P7R, and only this confirms the formality of this ball. In addition, on many replicas we can find the inscription "FIFA INSPECTED" instead of "FIFA APPROVED". There are also replicas that do not have alphanumeric links.  There is an initial Tricolore ball that has the inscription "EQUIPMENT" written in black letters in a yellow rectangle.