Footbonaut
{{Short description|Football training machine}}The Footbonaut is a football training machine which fires balls at different speeds and trajectories at players, who must control and pass the ball into a highlighted square. In addition to honing ball skills, the machine is designed to improve a player's reaction time.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oWLXBQAAQBAJ&q=Footbonaut&pg=PT66|title=The Blizzard - The Football Quarterly: Issue Eleven|last1=Wilson|first1=Jonathan|last2=Hesse|first2=Uli|last3=Lyttleton|first3=Ben|last4=Rabiner|first4=Igor|last5=Fanning|first5=Dion|last6=Montague|first6=James|last7=Horncastle|first7=James|last8=Udoh|first8=Colin|last9=Yokhin|first9=Michael|date=2013-12-09|publisher=Blizzard Media Ltd|language=en}}
Development
Footbonaut was invented by Christian Güttler in Berlin, Germany.[https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21669600-worlds-best-footballing-nation-masters-mental-aspect-making The making of a Fussballwunder], economist.com. The machine is also described as a robotic cage.[https://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/16/sport/football/dortmund-footbonaut-robot-football/ Football enters space age with 'Footbonaut'], edition.cnn.com. The Footbanaut, which costs $3.5 million is as large as an apartment with a cube shape and is capable of firing balls from a range of 360 degrees at different speeds and trajectories toward the training players.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FsQwDwAAQBAJ&q=Footbonaut&pg=PT16|title=Masters of Modern Soccer: How the World's Best Play the Twenty-First-Century Game|last=Wahl|first=Grant|date=2018-05-01|publisher=Crown/Archetype|isbn=9780804137065|language=en}} The players, who are standing inside a circle, must control the ball and pass it through one of 72 gates.{{Cite web|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/07/football/footbonaut-tsg-hoffenheim-julian-nagelsmann-borussia-dortmund/index.html|title='Footbonaut': German clubs lead football into the future|last1=Grez|first1=Matias|last2=Thomas|first2=Alex|date=November 9, 2017|website=CNN|access-date=2019-02-22}}
Mario Götze's winning goal of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final has been credited to his years of practice using Footbonaut.[https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21669600-worlds-best-footballing-nation-masters-mental-aspect-making The making of a Fussballwunder], economist.com. It was reported that German team TSG 1899 Hoffenheim achieved its highest finish in the Bundesliga for five years - ninth place - after using the contraption. There are three clubs currently using Footbonaut in their training. {{Cite web|url=https://www.bundesliga.com/en/news/Bundesliga/borussia-dortmund-and-hoffenheim-use-footbonaut-to-hone-their-passing-skills-464313.jsp|title = Meet the Footbonaut, the futuristic pass-master currently firing Borussia Dortmund and Hoffenheim}}
References
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