Boot spotting: 16th April

Get your week under way with another round of Soccer Reviews’ boot spots! The variety of boot spots was high and wide this weekend, from unreleased boots to customised boots and everything in between. We’ve gathered only the best boot spots from this week’s action. Which ones made the cut this week?

Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona) – adidas Predator LZ

Xavi making the move to the new Predator LZ prototypes was going to happen sooner rather than later, and the Spaniard made this weekend the one where he would pull out his own pair of Predator LZs! Considering Xavi is going to be the headline player for the new series, it wasn’t much of a surprise to see him wearing the boots this week. The orange part of Xavi’s boots highlights the ‘First Touch’ section of the boots, which was displayed by a number of players this weekend.

Nani (Manchester United) – adidas Predator LZ

While Nani pulled out his own pair of Predator LZs in his midweek game against Wigan, it wasn’t until the 90th minute of this weekend’s game against Aston Villa where the Portuguese winger was able to christen his boots with a goal. We speculated that Nani would be wearing the new Predator LZ pretty soon, and considering the LZ is meant to advertise itself to a wide variety of players, Nani would be a perfect advertisement for the ‘dribble’ zone of the boot! It’ll only be a matter of weeks until we see Nani in a pair of boots that highlight that part of the boot.

Elano (Santos) – Nike T90 Laser IV KL (Custom)

Elano is probably a player you haven’t heard about in a while! The former Manchester City star has now popped up in his homeland Brazil and he’s now knocking a ball about at the club of his youth, Santos. Elano was wearing T90 Laser Is during his time at Manchester City, and he’s carried through wearing the T90 range while at Santos. It’s his soleplate that we’re more interested in. Like many footballers, his soleplate has been fitted with the stud layout from the Tiempo range. Elano isn’t alone in doing this, and we wonder why many footballers prefer the stud configuration of the Tiempo range.

Samir Nasri (Manchester City) – adidas Predator LZ

Nasri and Kaka were the first two athletes to wear the upcoming Predator LZ under adidas’ advertising campaign for the boot last week. While the other athletes all wore Predator LZs highlighting the ‘first touch’ section of the boot, Nasri was very sneaky this week and might have accidentally revealed the zone of the boot that would be unveiled this week. Nasri’s boots highlight the ‘drive’ zone of the boot, so it looks like we have a fair idea now of what we’re going to see this week from adidas! Thanks to Yanis for the nudge.

Vicente Iborra (Levante) – Nike Mercurial Vapor VIII

Whenever we see a player in the new Sail/Soar/Challenge Red Vapor VIII colourway, we have to include the gorgeous boot in our boot spotting article! Levante’s Vicente Iborra made himself only one of a small handful of players who have been spotted in the classy new Vapor VIII colourway, with many settling for the loud Bright Mango colourway. We find it hard to believe so many players are giving the sleek colourway the snub, which is reminiscent of the White/Blue Vapor IV released a few years ago.

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid) – adidas miCoach F50 adiZero (Custom)

While it seems the majority of players have been satisfied with the miCoach F50 adiZero soleplate, it seems that Karim Benzema isn’t one of those athletes. The French striker has interestingly customised his adiZeros with the soleplate off the old F50 adiZero Prime, so we probably can’t call it a miCoach F50 adiZero any more! Considering the stud layout between the two generations of the adiZero is more or less the same, we wonder why Benzema has an issue with the miCoach F50 adiZero soleplate.

Michele Canini (Cagliari Calcio) – Nike T90 Strike IV (Custom)

Custom boots always go down well in our boot spotting articles, especially when players have gone out of their way to create their own unique colourways. But Michele Canini doesn’t get full marks for originality when it comes to his customised T90 Laser IVs. They look a lot like the original launch colourway of the T90 Laser IV, but instead of having a black section in the top half of the boot, the area is orange instead. We have to say that we prefer to see a black section over the orange on Canini’s boots.

Ricardo Esqueda (Jaguares) – adidas Predator adiPower (Custom)

While customised boots may have subtle differences between the general release models and their more exclusive created ones, when someone customises their boot correctly, it can make a good boot look brilliant. We’re loving Esqueda’s White/Red/Black customised adiPowers, but Tijuana’s Fernando Arce behind him is also wearing customised boots. Tijuana has a club policy that every player needs to wear red boots, and Fernando Arce has coloured his gold F50 adiZero TRX boots red to follow his club’s orders. We think it might have been easier for him to get customised boots made for him than his scrappy DIY paint job…

Pa Kujabi (Hibernian) – Nike Total 90 Laser II

It’s not too often that we get to see a retro T90 Laser spot, but Pa Kujabi’s silver Total 90 Laser IIs were first released nearly 3 years ago, meaning that Kujabi has done well to keep the boots in the condition they are in. The T90 Laser II was the focal point of one of the best football commercials of all time, the Guy Ritchie directed Take It To The Next Level, and we’d love to see Nike produce another commercial that was iconic as the famous Take It To The Next Level ad.

That’s it for this week’s boot spotting. What was your favourite spot this week? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.