Bayern Munich set to obliterate Bundesliga record, just a year after setting it

Analysis

Ronan Murphy | Social Media

German football is about to have its Jabulani moment. The infamous ball led to an increase in goals at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, to the delight of fans and the dismay of defenders and goalkeepers.

Jabulani means “be happy” but the goalkeepers were anything but, with Iker Casillas calling it “horrible.” NASA even ended up studying its flight trajectory because it was so unpredictable.

Now, after eight years of Derbystar footballs, the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga have switched to Adidas from the 2026/27 season and with the German second division kicking off last weekend, this new ball is already causing chaos.

It is called the Adidas Torfabrik, which translates as Goal Factory, and it has lived up to its name already, with Eintracht Braunschweig scoring six goals in their opener, Heidenheim and Osnabruck playing out a seven-goal thriller, and two other teams scoring three goals apiece in the first weekend.

The Bundesliga is the highest-scoring top-flight league in Europe already and its strikers will be champing at the bit to start shooting with it. Some of the league’s better goalkeepers have already spoken of how difficult it is to stop compared to before, with Hamburg’s Daniel Heuer Fernandes saying “The Adidas ball is faster than the Derbystar. You can strike it well, so it’s more friendly for outfield players. As a goalkeeper, you have slightly less time to react because of its faster trajectory. That’s been my experience so far."

Nuremberg goalkeeper Jan-Marc Reichert went into the technical aspects of what makes the Torfabrik harder to stop and expects more goals from distance with the new ball: “The Adidas ball is simply harder on the surface, which gives it a completely different trajectory. As a striker, you can hit it much harder, and it picks up a lot more speed. We told the guys: If you have the chance to shoot, go for it. Because it definitely became easier to score from long range."

The strikers in the 2. Bundesliga and from the Bundesliga, on the other hand, could not be more excited by what they have seen and felt so far. “You can apply a bit more power when shooting without the ball flying ten meters over the goal,” was Stefano Marino’s report from Paderborn’s pre-season before their return to the top-flight.

Dynamo Dresden striker Jakob Lemme is no Harry Kane, but the England forward will like what he hears from this comment: "We’ve noticed within the team that the ball is a nightmare for goalkeepers and moves from side to side. And when you hit it from distance, I think it’s difficult for a goalkeeper to deal with."

Last season, Kane and Bayern Munich smashed the Bundesliga record for the most goals in a single season in Germany’s top flight with 122 goals. With the Torfabrik, that record might just last one season.

The Bundesliga always guarantees goals, but there should be EVEN MORE goals this season.