Much has been written about the Teamgeist Match Ball that was developed for the Soccer World Cup 2006, but little is known about the different limited editions that were available for purchase. Occasionally limited edition balls can be found on eBay, some of them are not genuine! This guide tries to help identifying these balls.

The Teamgeist was produced in two versions that were sold in retail stores. I don't know the exact production numbers, but the Teamgeist has been produced by the millions, whereas the Gold version is much rarer.

• Teamgeist (White/Black)
• Teamgeist Berlin (Gold/Black)
  

In addition, two Limited Edition balls were produced for sale in select retail stores:

• Teamgeist (White/Black) with imprint Germany-Costa Rica (unknown number of balls were made)
  
• Teamgeist Berlin (Gold/Black) with imprint Italy-France (only 1600 balls were made)
  

Both balls are very rare, but are still offered on eBay sometimes. Be aware of imitations, the imprint can be printed on regular Teamgeist balls and will look almost identical to the limited editions. Several non-genuine versions of the Teamgeist Berlin with Italy-France imprint have been sold on eBay. To avoid disappointment, always ask where the ball was purchased and ask for detailed photos. Compare the photos to pictures of genuine limited editions balls, a good reference is the web site www.balones-oficiales.com. No other limited edition ball from any other game than these two were made by Adidas for sale!

A Teamgeist Berlin with fake imprint (notice the wrong 'M'):



Adidas produced 15 match balls to be used in each of the World Cup games. Like the limited editions, these balls have the imprint of the team names, the name of the Stadium and the city, the date and kick-off time. Balls have been made for all 64 games, so there is a total of 960 match used balls from the World Cup in existence. They can be identified by the FIFA "original match used game ball" stamp that was put on these balls *after* the games. Needless to say that these balls are very rare and very expensive as they are true collector items!

Occasionally there are Teamgeist balls with imprints of the games 2-63 offered on eBay (any other game than Game 1: Germany-Costa Rica or Game 64: Italy-France). Unless they have the FIFA stamp that authenticates them as game used match balls, these balls are *not* genuine. To elaborate, the Teamgeist ball itself is most likely an original, but the imprint is not! Again, only 15 original balls per game were imprinted by Adidas for each game of the World Cup.

Original match used ball Italy-USA with FIFA stamp:



The same applies to the Europass that was developed for the EURO 2008 championship. No Limited Edition of this ball was made available for sale. Only 15 match balls with the imprint of the team names, the name of the Stadium and the city, the date and kick-off time were made by Adidas to be used in the games. After the game these match used balls received a seal from UEFA to authenticate them. If you see a ball without this seal, it certainly is not match used and most likely not genuine. The authentic match used balls are very rare and very expensive. A true collectors item, especially the Europass Gloria from the final Germany v Spain!

Original match used ball Croatia-Germany with UEFA seal visible in the right hand corner: