Review: Select Royale and Numero 10 Soccer Balls

Official match and training ball supplier of the Denmark and Belgium national soccer teams and UEFA Champions League campaigners FC Copenhagen, Select Sports has been known for some of the best balls in the sport for over 60 years now.

Select was founded by Danish national team goalkeeper Eigil Nielsen in 1947 when even the best players could not rely on soccer as their primary source of income. The company went on to create the first synthetic leather and 32-panel footballs in history. Select Sports also introduced the first balls without an external valve, the first waterproof balls and the first hand-stictched PU balls to the world.

While Select may not have the marketing prowess of adidas or Nike, its soccer balls are well-respected from the grassroots to international levels. We’ve seen many pickup, training and amateur club matches where Select balls were chosen for use over other prominent brands from the communal ball pool.

Recently, the soccer junkies at Football Fashion have been taking a look at two of Select Sports’ 2011 offerings – the Numero 10 and Royale. Here’s what we found.

Select Numero 10
Marketed as a training and club match ball, the Select Numero 10 is clearly built to endure the rigors of serious practice sessions, scrimmages and amateur league matches with its FPUS polyurethane synthetic leather outer layer and hand-stitching. We found it to react as expected of a quality soccer ball in terms of touches for on the ground and in the air passes. It also has trajectories as expected for all of the shots that we made with it (no surprises here as with a certain World Cup 2010 matchball). All in all it is a modern soccer ball that plays like a classic.

Inflate a Select Numero 10 properly and we think that it will survive at least two years of abuse on even the dry, sometimes grassless summertime training fields that many of us part-timers are forced to use. If your team or league is on a tight budget, at $40 each the Select Numero 10 is a suitable matchball as well.

Select Royale
Put a swoosh or three stripes on the Select Royale and its $60 pricetag would probably double. Not only is this one of the best balls that we’ve ever tried, it is also one of the best deals around. If your club has the funds, we highly recommend using it for your matchball.

The Select Royale plays as well as the Numero 10. However, with a seemingly better foam lining layer that makes the ball feel softer to the touch and no visible stitching on the outside of the ball, this ball is a dream to dribble, kick, trap and head. This especially nice in this age of ultralight and ultrathin soccer boots where kicking a lower level ball can be a bit painful on the foot.

With a higher-end synthetic outer layer (FPUS 1800 vs. the Numero 10’s FPUS 1500), the Royale does not retain as much of a film of moisture on its surface as many other high end club match balls on the market. How many times did we slip on those horrible adidas Jabulanis last fall? Not a worry here.

The Select Royale and Numero 10 both possess excellent shape that should last for the lives of the balls. After using them over the past few days, we see absolutely no shape distortion in either.

The Select Royale, Numero 10 and a host of other Select products are now available at World Soccer Shop.

Thanks to Collin for making this review possible.

FC Copenhagen Uses Select Sports Soccer Balls