THE DAYS OF a simple pair of black, leather football boots are long gone.
The pitches of the Premier League, La Liga and other top leagues nowadays are graced by much more colourful, eye-catching footwear and ever more intricate designs.
There are seemingly endless different types of boots now available to players professional and amateur alike, but what do the very best in the game like to wear?
We’ve rounded up the boot choices of the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for an insight into which models they will be wearing during the 2017-18 campaign.
Cristiano Ronaldo
As you would expect, the reigning Ballon d’Or winner wears the newest Nike boot from the company’s most popular line: the Mercurial Superfly V (£260).
The orange and black colourway is the latest to be released but you can probably expect to see Ronaldo wearing a custom pair at some point this season. Since 2010, Nike have been periodically designing special Mercurials under the ‘CR7′ brand.
The Real Madrid star has worn Mercurials his entire career – starting, ironically, with the elder Ronaldo’s R9s back when he made the breakthrough at Sporting and Manchester United.
Lionel Messi
Barcelona star Messi wears the Adidas Nemeziz 17+ and in his most recent club match sported a blue, black and yellow pair that will set you back £280.
During the current international window, however, Messi has debuted a colourway named ‘Ocean Storm’ which is not currently on sale and matches Argentina’s blue-and-white stripes.
As with Nike and Ronaldo, Adidas will regularly release boots branded with Messi’s name and, if you look closely at his right boot in the image above, you will notice the ‘Nemeziz’ print across the inside of the heel has been changed to ‘Messi’.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner wore Adidas’ F50 boots before the company switched up their brands a few years back.
Neymar
Neymar is another player who gets boots branded under his own name.
Nike have taken their Mercurial base and created the Mercurial Superfly V Neymar (£270), which come in a very Brazilian light blue, yellow and green colourway and feature a more traditional Nike ‘swoosh’ than Ronaldo’s Mercurials.
Funnily enough, though, Neymar wears a cheaper version. He prefers the Mercurial Vapor XI Neymar (£210, pictured above), which are essentially the same boot but without the attached ankle sock.
Gareth Bale
Bale wears the Adidas X 17+ Purespeed boots, which cost £250.
He wore a white-and-blue pair at the end of last season but has switched to the new fluorescent yellow models for the 2017-18 campaign.
Luis Suarez
For Suarez, see Bale.
It’s the Adidas X 17+ Purespeed models for the Barcelona striker, too. He was wearing a darker green pair last season but now, like Bale, has swapped them for fluorescent yellow.
Adidas say they are designed for explosive speed and finishing, so you can see why Bale and Suarez have gravitated towards them.
Antoine Griezmann
Griezmann is one of Puma’s biggest players and was given their top-of-the-range boot, the Puma One 17.1 (£160), as a result.
Rumour has it that the Frenchman wasn’t particularly fond of them, though, and that is backed up by the fact he has frequently been seen wearing the older Evospeed models instead.
But in France’s most recent World Cup qualifying matches he debuted the striking new Puma One Chrome boots (£220).
He seemed to take to them quickly, netting after 14 minutes against the Netherlands, but a 0-0 draw against Luxembourg took the shine off their first couple of outings.
Robert Lewandowski
Bayern Munich hitman Lewandowski is the face of Nike’s line of Hypervenom boots, which are marketed to strikers.
The pair he currently wears are called the Hypervenom Phantom 3 and cost £260 for the pro versions with the Superfly ankle sock.
Alexis Sanchez
Alexis is another Nike man and in his first appearance of the season for Arsenal he was wearing the Mercurial Superfly V boots seen on Ronaldo.
At this summer’s Confederations Cup and for Chile’s latest World Cup qualifiers, though, Alexis has been wearing what appears to be a custom pair of Mercurials (pictured above) in the Chile colours.
These don’t seem to have ever been publicly released or put on sale.
Eden Hazard
Hazard is releasing his own pair of Nike boots: the Flyknit Ultra.
These will go on sale on September 7 for £210 and be available in limited quantities directly from Nike, meaning they are sure to be seriously hot property (it helps that they look absolutely gorgeous).
The boots Hazard will wear are predominantly black with a metallic gold sole and Nike swoosh outline. They will also be available, however, in a pitch-black version with a dark silver sole.
Why have Nike chosen Hazard for their latest release? That might have something to do with the 15-year, £900 million deal they have signed to provide Chelsea’s kits starting this season.
Luka Modric
One of the world’s top midfield playmakers opts for the Nike Mercurial Vapor XI, which cost £200.
Modric’s boots of choice are much the same as Ronaldo’s Mercurial Superfly V models – including the orange-and-black colourway – but, like Neymar’s, do not have the ankle sock.
Paul Pogba
Pogba is the face of Adidas’ Ace boots and currently wears the Ace 17+ Purecontrol (£250).
Like the X 17+ boots Bale and Suarez wear, these do not have any laces and are supposed to mould to your feet instantly with no wear-in time required.
Subscribe to The42 podcasts here:
The photo used for Messi aren’t the Nemeziz and the photo used for Hazard aren’t the flyknit Mercurial Superflys that Nike will be releasing next week. The only boots people should be concerned about are the Adidas Predator Precision Re-Release in 2 days time (the ones Zidane one in 2001)
@Conor O’Neill: that man knows his boots!!
@Joe Kennedy: or he is conning us, by saying that so we think he knows alot about boots but really he it is all lies and we just don’t know that much about it to call him out on it….oh you are good but I’m onto you!!
Nice to see some journalism that gets to the nitty gritty of football issues and answers the questions we’ve all been dying to find out the answers to.
Majority of people know, pointless article.
Toni Kroos’ Adipures nicer boots than all of them
Can’t beat the old Puma Kings back in the day. All black with a white and gold trim. Lovely boot.
What’s Boots does the mighty Ox Chamberlain wear
@powerfix: he wears his own brand, they are called Ox 7 in 6. Should be wearing gardening boots if you ask me though
@Johnny Bravo: lol very good bravo his goal ratio
If people think that the boots they pay nearly 300 euro for are the same as the ones these professionals wear then they deluded.they are imitations that are nowhere near the quality
@Marc Richardson: so you think it’s some sort of conspiracy?
Slow day lads.
They need to bring back the classic Predator Manias. I still have a pair of 8s in near mint condition except for the fact I need 10s. They’d be the only boot I’d pay a few hundred for.
@Leon: are you selling them??