Soccer is maybe the most popular sport in the world. The history of soccer goes along, evidently, with the soccer ball history. When referring to the soccer ball history there are several periods to distinguish. Thus we can talk about early ball history, the balls in the 1800s, balls in the 1900s, and the modern times.
Early soccer ball history starts before the birth of Christ. It is known that people have liked kicking either a ball or something similar to one, since the beginnings of times. South American Indians were among the first to use a form of elastic ball that pre-dated the use of rubber, discovered a thousand years later. The early soccer balls were made of very peculiar materials from human and animal skulls to cow or pig bladders and stitched up cloth. Between 255 BC and 220 AD, the Chinese played ‘tsu chu’ using animal-skin balls dribbled through gaps in a net stretched between two poles. Ancient Greeks and Romans also had a game which involved kicking and carrying a ball, whereas in certain ancient Egyptian rites are said to have had similarities with soccer.
Pre-medieval and medieval stories and legends that can be qualified as part of the soccer ball history, also mention the use of animal bladders or skulls to play games similar to modern soccer. An instance of the use of an animal bladder ball is presented in the legend about the ‘game’ between two villages. An entire village ran and kicked a ball with the purpose of getting it into the other village’s square. The other villagers will make similar attempts. Inflated animal bladders seem to dominate this part of the soccer ball history. Once inflated they would try to keep the ‘ball’ in the air by by means of both feet and hands. In time people noticed that covering the bladder with leather would maintain the shape better and longer.
The soccer ball history of the 1800s was marked by the 1836 patenting of vulcanized rubber by Charles Goodyear. In 1855 the same Charles Goodyear designed and then built the first vulcanized rubber soccer balls. In 1862 H.J. Lindon developed one of the first inflatable bladders for soccer balls. He is also credited to have invented the rugby ball; however he did not patent the idea for it as, in those days, the round ball was preferred for being more easily used. By the 1900s the soccer ball history had already enjoyed the use of stronger rubber balls that could withstand heavier and heavier pressure.
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