Welcome to The Vault, a new series from MUNDIAL where we celebrate the artefacts, objects, iconic global products, and little bits of tat that make football history fizz with wonder. It could be anything from Predators to Kings, an exceptionally rare Inter Milan kit from the 80s or a football stamp from Guinea-Bissau. Balls, film posters, statues, fan memorabilia, bootleg shirts—anything that we think should be cherished.
Each week, we’ll interview someone connected to an object that we believe deserves to go into The Vault: forever enshrined and immortalised in an archive of joy. This time up, we’ve got Rob Filby, a man who has spent his life collecting official match balls. Your Jabulanis, your Fevernovas, your Ultimaxes. But there’s one ball above all that Rob holds dear. It’s the adidas Tango Europa, and he’s ready to tell you all about it and his secret network of referees…
“My obsession with collecting goes back to the 1982 World Cup in Spain. I was 11 years old at the time, and I was living in Germany as my dad was in the RAF. I got home from school, and turned on the TV, flicked through German channels, and they had one of the World Cup matches on. I can't even remember who was playing. But I just saw this ball, and I thought, fucking hell, what's that? It was an adidas Tango, and I'd never seen one before. It was just so different to the balls I've been used to seeing in English football and the balls that we'd used at school.
“So straight away, that ball went on every birthday list, every Christmas list. But it never materialised, understandably, because back, then it cost like a week’s wages. My parents didn't want to spend so much money on a ball that I’d ruin in a week.
“But it sparked my real passion for footballs, particularly ones which have been used in matches, be that World Cup matches or FA Cup matches or Champions League. I think they’ve got a bit of soul to them if they've actually been on the field of play and kicked in anger by a player. They’ve got that scuff or like mark on them. I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but they've got, literally, in some cases, blood, sweat, and tears on these balls.
“But going back to the Tango, I fell in love with this ball in 1982, and then I kind of forgot about it, you know? But roll on thirty years, and I started playing football with friends after work on the local AstroTurf pitch, so I went up to the local sports shop to buy a ball to use, and they had a reissue of the adidas Tango on sale. I took one look, and all the memories came flooding back.
“So then I thought, well, I wonder if I could get an original one? That’s what made me really start searching.