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With your permission, I’d like to regale you with a story from my childhood. When I was six, I lived down the street from a fellow soccer fanatic, so we naturally would play soccer every chance we had. When it got cold outside, we obviously had to move indoors, but we couldn’t use a regular sized ball. What did we do? We used a size 1 ball instead and made the field shorter. We took off the cushions from the couch in my parents’ basement and put them on the wall opposite the couch. The couch made one goal and the cushions another. From there, we used a mini ball, played on our knees and used our hands as substitute feet to hit the ball back and forth in a little game. I honestly think I played that game or some version of it from ages 6-10 or something. We had entirely too much fun with the game.
With that little story in mind, which I appreciate you reading, I should tell you about the Barcelona mini ball. Its stitching and patch pattern is the same as a regular soccer ball with hexagon and pentagon patches, and it has the same kind of inner bladder that regulation sized balls have. What makes this ball cool, though, is that it has alternating circles of maroon and navy, the team colors, which span around the ball. It also has the team crest on one patch, and, just below the crest, the Nike swoosh covers two patches in yellow with a gold outline. The center navy stripe also has an inner yellow line which has both FCB and “Més que un club” (More than a club) written on it. The ball is basically perfect for the little guys and girls who can’t play outside but still want to play something. It’s also great for fans of the team who want to add to their collection of fan support items. If you have the scarf, you could easily wrap it around the bottom of the ball and set it on your mantle. This ball is only $9.99, so it’s definitely a good purchase if you need to keep your kids’ playing needs met without getting your stuff broken; as I mentioned earlier, it would also be a great addition to your Barcelona gear, especially if you’re the superstitious kind—maybe it’ll be your lucky ball!
Written by: Kris Dyer, columnist, soccerprose.com
