The EURO “Beau Jeu” soccer ball promises beautiful matches and beautiful goals: Perfect flight characteristics thanks to polyurethane

The European Soccer Championship will start soon, on June 10, 2016, but Germany's World Champions and all the other kickers have had an opportunity since November 2015 to get familiar with its outstanding properties: the 'Beau Jeu,' French for 'beautiful game,' the official match ball of the European Football Championship 2016 from adidas. For the brand with the three stripes and Covestro, these games in France mark an anniversary: The two companies have been working together for 30 years developing balls and have accumulated a wealth of know-how and experience along the way.

The Beau Jeu incorporates the best elements of the Brazuca, the official match ball of the 2014 Soccer World Cup, but surpasses it in terms of grip and its properties in play. The improved ball control and stable flight characteristics of the Beau Jeu, but also its water resistance are all thanks to its outer shell.

Sophisticated shell
And this is where Covestro comes in: 'The ball's outer shell consists of a total of five layers based on polyurethane raw materials from our Impranil® line,' says Thomas Michaelis, project manager for ball development at Covestro. 'It starts with the outermost skin, a full underglass print that prevents abrasion of the printed layer.' The white surface decorated in the French national colors, blue, white and red is thus very durable.

The underlying intermediate layer protects the ball against external influences and lends it unusually high elasticity. Beneath that is a polyurethane foam with millions of microspheres that ensure outstanding flight characteristics. A polyurethane adhesive bonds the top layers to a special polyester-cotton fabric that serves as a substrate.

Incidentally, the Beau Jeu had its premiere in the world's first digital soccer stadium, the adidas Future Arena in St. Denis, where computer-animated stands simulated 50,000 spectators.

Fans can look forward to exciting matches and highly trained soccer stars, who will be hunting for goals with the Beau Jeu from June 10 to July 10, 2016.

About Covestro:
With 2015 sales of EUR 12.1 billion, Covestro is among the world's largest polymer companies. Business activities are focused on the manufacture of high-tech polymer materials and the development of innovative solutions for products used in many areas of daily life. The main segments served are the automotive, electrical and electronics, construction and the sports and leisure industries. Covestro, formerly Bayer MaterialScience, has 30 production sites around the
globe and as of the end of the first quarter 2016 employed approximately 15,700 people (full-time equivalents).

Find more information atwww.covestro.comandwww.adidas.com.

Forward-looking statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Covestro AG. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in Covestro's public reports which are available on the Covestro website atwww.covestro.com. Covestro assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.