Much like Nike's 94 Fifty Ball adidas have designed a football that monitors and records performance in a bid to aid and improve an athlete’s game.

Developed by a team of engineers over three years, the Smart Ball comes kitted out with the kind of technology normally reserved for the physio’s office. It features an accelerometer to determine speed and velocity, and a magnetometer to help accurately record the impact location (where and how the striker’s foot connected with the ball), spin and trajectory.

Using Bluetooth, the Smart Ball connects to a smartphone and offers real-time statistics. It can be used in four different modes: ‘Kick It’ analyses a player’s kicking technique; ‘Get Better’ aims to improve training by offering on-the-spot feedback; ‘Challenge’ brings a bit of fun to training by inviting players to complete game-like tasks; and ‘Record Book’ allows players to save kicks for later analysis.

Seeking to build upon their arsenal of forward thinking, technology based training aids, the Smart Ball will be fully compatible with existing adidas miCoach products, and is another example of performance enhancing equipment that uses smart, self-quantifying technology to gather vital data about the user's game.