The soccerball was given to POTUS in a dramatic public way, whereby those not in the know can dismiss it as just a soccer ball, and those who have good reason to be frightened will be triggered that Putin just might be giving POTUS terabytes of data revealing those /badguys/ misdeeds.
Designed to shake the tree and cause further confessions, ill-conceived actions that reveal more collaborators, attempts to hide ill-gotten wealth, attempts to conceal evidence, etc.
Masterful!