<p> It was when he felt the roar of the crowd at the 2006 World Cup in Germany that Pakistani factory owner Khawaja Akhtar first dreamt up a goal of his own: to manufacture the ball for the biggest soccer tournament on the planet.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“The people were chanting all around me. I just thought, ‘This is the real thing’,” Akhtar told Reuters. “I was part of the crowd. I never had that kind of feeling before.”His factory in eastern Pakistan had made balls for the German Bundesliga, French league and Champions League, but he had never snagged a World Cup contract. Last year he finally got his chance -- but only 33 days to make it happen.<br /><br />When Akhtar heard last autumn that Adidas’ Chinese supplier for the World Cup couldn't keep up with demand, he immediately invited executives to his plant in Sialkot, a wealthy Pakistani manufacturing town with a long history of leatherwork.Their first visit was not a success.<br /><br />“They said ‘You have Stone Age equipment,” said his oldest son, Hassan Masood Khawaja, laughing.<br /><br /> “After they left, my father called a meeting and said: ‘This is our only chance. If we show them we can't do it, we'll never get another chance again.’” <br /><br />It usually takes six months to set up a production line, but the factory only had a month -- Adidas, the German sports equipment maker, was in a hurry. So Khawaja designed, made and moved the equipment into place within 33 days. Everything had to be done from scratch.<br /><br />“It was hard, maybe the hardest thing I've ever done,” he said over the noise of the hot, hissing machines.<br /><br />But it was a success, and the firm's previous investment in thermal bonding technology paid off. Only thermally bonded balls -- made using a glue that reacts with heat -- are round enough for the World Cup's strict standards.<br /><br /></p>
<p> It was when he felt the roar of the crowd at the 2006 World Cup in Germany that Pakistani factory owner Khawaja Akhtar first dreamt up a goal of his own: to manufacture the ball for the biggest soccer tournament on the planet.<br /><br /></p>.<p>“The people were chanting all around me. I just thought, ‘This is the real thing’,” Akhtar told Reuters. “I was part of the crowd. I never had that kind of feeling before.”His factory in eastern Pakistan had made balls for the German Bundesliga, French league and Champions League, but he had never snagged a World Cup contract. Last year he finally got his chance -- but only 33 days to make it happen.<br /><br />When Akhtar heard last autumn that Adidas’ Chinese supplier for the World Cup couldn't keep up with demand, he immediately invited executives to his plant in Sialkot, a wealthy Pakistani manufacturing town with a long history of leatherwork.Their first visit was not a success.<br /><br />“They said ‘You have Stone Age equipment,” said his oldest son, Hassan Masood Khawaja, laughing.<br /><br /> “After they left, my father called a meeting and said: ‘This is our only chance. If we show them we can't do it, we'll never get another chance again.’” <br /><br />It usually takes six months to set up a production line, but the factory only had a month -- Adidas, the German sports equipment maker, was in a hurry. So Khawaja designed, made and moved the equipment into place within 33 days. Everything had to be done from scratch.<br /><br />“It was hard, maybe the hardest thing I've ever done,” he said over the noise of the hot, hissing machines.<br /><br />But it was a success, and the firm's previous investment in thermal bonding technology paid off. Only thermally bonded balls -- made using a glue that reacts with heat -- are round enough for the World Cup's strict standards.<br /><br /></p>