Telstar was the first named official FIFA World Cup ball, used at the 1970 tournament in Mexico.
Adidas produced Telstar for the 1970 competition and named it after the communications satellite Telstar. Its black-and-white design was especially visible on television, whose coverage was expanding internationally. The ball used a 32-panel construction, a major change from many earlier football designs.
Telstar was also used at the 1974 World Cup, with a white version called the Telstar Durlast appearing alongside the familiar black-and-white model. The design influenced later Adidas World Cup balls, including the 1974 and 1978 models.
The name is sometimes confused with Tango, which was introduced for the 1978 World Cup, or Azteca, used in 1986. Those balls continued the tradition of giving official tournament balls distinctive names.