The World Cup ball is fooling goalkeepers — and there's a scientific study to prove it
The Trionda, the official ball of the 2026 World Cup, reaches goalkeepers faster than it appears. Joe Hart raised the alarm on the BBC, and an academic study confirms the problem.
Luca Zidane has already conceded five goals in two games. Two of them passed literally through his fingers — one from Messi, another from Jordanian Nizar al-Rashdan. The son of Zinedine, the Algerian goalkeeper has become a symbol of something that goes beyond individual bad luck: the 2026 World Cup ball may be playing tricks on goalkeepers.
The Adidas Trionda is the tournament's official ball, and former English goalkeeper Joe Hart has been repeating an unsettling observation on the BBC: the ball reaches goalkeepers' hands far faster than it appears when it leaves a player's foot. "The ball is arriving at goalkeepers much quicker than it looks when it leaves the boot," Hart said. He added: "When goalkeepers get used to these World Cup balls, we'll see these shots being saved."
Zidane is not alone in falling into this trap. Senegal's Édouard Mendy and Iraq's Ahmed Basil also managed to get a touch on shots they ultimately could not hold. The pattern is hard to ignore.
And it has academic backing. South Korean and Japanese researchers produced an 18-page paper analysing precisely the aerodynamic behaviour of balls like the Trionda — the title says it all: Orientation-Dependent Drag. In other words: depending on the ball's orientation in the air, drag changes — and with it, the trajectory and perceived speed.
For Senegal, the problem goes beyond the ball. The Golmetria model projects just a 50.71% chance of advancing to the knockout stage — and Mendy will need to be in top form to change that picture. Argentina, on the other hand, sits at 100% odds of progressing in the model's calculations, with Messi already taking full advantage of the difficulties the Trionda imposes.
The World Cup is still in its early stages. But if Hart is right, the goalkeepers who learn to read the Trionda fastest could prove decisive down the stretch — including in the semi-finals and the final.