4. In 1836, Charles Goodyear did us all a favor and patented vulcanized rubber and although his invention was to be used in more important areas at that time, it also helped taking the history of soccer balls one step forward, with the introduction of the first vulcanized rubber soccer balls (which were also designed by Goodyear, reportedly a fan of the game) in 1855.
From 1855 until today, the history of the soccer game evolved tremendously and so did its "work object", which evolved more in a century than it did in the entire history of soccer balls prior to this period.
Modern technology and the exponentially rising popularity and financial strength of soccer all worked together in bringing state-of-the-art super soccer balls and taking the history of soccer balls one step further.
