The Adidas Trionda has come under scrutiny at the 2026 World Cup, with several high-profile goalkeeping errors raising serious questions about the tournament’s official ball.
England’s Jordan Pickford and Senegal’s Edouard Mendy are among the notable names who have got a hand to the ball but been unable to keep it out of the net.
Algeria’s Luca Zidane has conceded in that manner on two separate occasions, against Argentina and Jordan, compounding concerns about the ball’s behaviour in flight.
Iraq goalkeeper Ahmed Basil also failed to keep out Kylian Mbappe’s effort from range despite getting a touch to it, prompting BBC Sport pundit Joe Hart to speak out.
“I’m seeing this goal way too many times for a World Cup for there not to be something up with that football,” the former England keeper said.
Former Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel has backed that view, having trained with the Trionda following its release in October 2025, months before the tournament began.
Schmeichel, who is now retired, says the ball’s four-panel construction and bonded surface create a “serious difference between the balls” compared to previous World Cup editions.
“There’s no stitching in it – it’s all bonded together. When you mix that in with the different weathers, the air density, there’s less drag on the ball, which means it doesn’t spin as much,” Schmeichel told the BBC Football Daily podcast.
“There’s a couple of goals where you’re seeing keepers getting close to it – Pickford, with the first goal of the Croatia scores – and you’ve got Luca Zidane against [Lionel] Messi and even Edouard Mendy against Mbappe,” he added.
Schmeichel was direct in his assessment of the ball’s intentions, saying: “The thing about this ball is that we want to see goals, so they build balls to score goals.”
The numbers support the idea that this tournament is producing more attacking action than previous editions, particularly from distance.
There have already been 20 goals from outside the box during the group stage, twice as many as in the entire group stage of the 2022 World Cup.
According to Opta, there have been 11 errors leading to goals so far in the United States, Canada and Mexico, more than in the group stages of any of the past seven World Cups.
Hart identified a specific pattern in the errors, noting that keepers are struggling with the ball above shoulder height in particular.
“How many times at the top level do you see the goalkeeper touch it and it go in the goal? Very rarely because they’re good enough that once they do get contact, they get it wide,” he said.
“I’m noticing in this tournament that goalkeepers are getting touches on it above their shoulder height and they’re just not able to keep it out, so something is up,” Hart continued.
Adidas spent around three and a half years developing the Trionda and conducted an estimated 300 lab tests before the tournament, also trialling the ball in seven of the World Cup’s 16 host cities.
The manufacturer said the four-panel design features “intentionally deep seams” and “strategically placed debossed lines alongside embossed country icons” to produce “optimal in-flight stability.”
Schmeichel, the former Leicester City and Celtic goalkeeper, pinpointed speed as the central problem for keepers trying to adjust to the new ball this summer.
“It doesn’t wobble as much, but the speed of how they strike it is slightly different. It’s marginal, but it’s enough. Goalkeeping is a game of margins,” he said.
