How it began
In 1931 three men of Italian immigrant descent in Bell Ville, a town in the province of Cordoba, Romano Luis Polo, Antonio Tossolini and Juan Valbonesi, set out to make a ball without the outer lace. The town's Municipal Center for Historical Studies records that the patent for their improvement was filed on March 11, 1931. They named the ball Superball. It was first played in public at the ground of Club Atletico Argentino in a match organized to present it.
Before it existed
Earlier footballs were closed with a thick, rough leather cord, the tiento, that laced the panels together at the opening. According to the municipality's account, these balls were not truly round, bounced unpredictably and made passes less accurate. The cord caused discomfort and even injuries to the forehead when players headed the ball.
How it works
The Superball replaced the laced opening with what its makers called an invisible mouth. The ball was inflated through a needle with a hand pump named Topoval, which the same inventors created, and the seam was hidden. Without the cord on the outside, the ball was round and balanced.
What changed first
The ball was patented in March 1931, the year Argentine football turned professional, and was shown to the public in a match at Club Atletico Argentino. Players no longer had to head a ball with a rough cord on its surface, and the rounder shape made the bounce and the pass more predictable. By 1936 the ball was in official use in matches run by the Argentine Football Association.
Where it stands today
Bell Ville has been declared by law the National Capital of the Football and holds a yearly festival in honor of the ball. The original version is kept as part of the town's cultural heritage. In 2020 the director Agustin Sinibaldi released a film about its origin, Superball, una historia hecha pelota.
