Boot spotting: 26th March

Kick off your week in the best manner possible with another round of Soccer Reviews boot spots. Soccer Reviews has brought only the best boot spots to the table for our readers to feast on. The past week may have been dominated by a certain Nike speed boot launch, and while they certainly stood out on the pitch, there was loads on offer besides the new Mercurial Vapor VIII this weekend. Take a look at what boots made the cut this week.

Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) – Nike Mercurial Vapor VIII

In the dashing Bright Mango/Metallic Grey Mercurial Vapor VIII, Cristiano Ronaldo gave his new boots a debut to remember by scoring a double and becoming the quickest player in La Liga history to score 100 goals. Ronaldo, like many players all over the world, officially debuted the new Mercurial Vapor VIII this weekend. He has, however, been testing the boot in privacy over the past few months, as Nike disguised his Vapor VIIIs as a pair of Superfly IIIs.

Andres Iniesta (Barcelona) – Nike CTR360 Maestri II

While a lot of attention went to the launch of the Mercurial Vapor VIII this week, Nike did release a range of new colourways onto their other boot ranges. The CTR360 Maestri II received the new Black/White/Orange colourway, which was worn this weekend by the headline player of the range, Andres Iniesta. Even though the CTR360 Maestri III will be released later this year, it’s interesting to note that we haven’t seen Iniesta testing a blackout version of the boot yet.

Frank Lampard (Chelsea) – adidas adiPure 11Pro

While it took a lot longer than we thought it would take (and probably longer than adidas thought it would take), but Frank Lampard finally made the switch from the adiPure IV to the adiPure 11Pro. We know Frank Lampard loves K-Leather boots, which would explain why Lampard tried to hold onto his adiPure IV for as long as possible. Lampard has been wearing the adiPure 11Pro in training over the past few weeks, and he chose this week to wear them in a competitive game.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (AC Milan) – Nike Mercurial Vapor VIII

Swedish dynamo Zlatan Ibrahimovic may be another player who is one of the faces of the Mercurial Vapor VIII range, and while he wore the new Bright Mango/Metallic Grey Vapor VIII for the first half of this week’s against Roma, he decided to pull on his Midnight Purple Mercurials for the second half, which are really the Vapor VIII in disguise. Zlatan then went on and scored two goals in the 2nd half to cap off a man of the match performance, so it’ll be interesting to see what Zlatan wears next week.

Pascal Chimbonda (Doncaster) – adidas Predator adiPower (Custom)

Pascal Chimbonda is probably a name that you haven’t heard in a while. The journeyman player is now at Doncaster Rovers after being released early on a short term deal at QPR. Since then, the defender has picked up a pair of Blue/Electricity adiPowers. He also added some bespoke customisation to the boot, making the boot all black except for the three stripes and a little bit of blue around the adidas stripes. They look absolutely amazing, and Chimbonda gets full marks on his customisation effort.

Scott Parker (Tottenham) – Nike T90 Laser IV KL

The T90 Laser IV has been a very popular boot since it’s release, and it received a new colourway this week in the form of the Kanga-Lite Soar/Black/Silver T90 Laser IV. Scott Parker is known to go for leather versions of the T90 Laser range, and he was probably pretty glad that the latest release came with a Kanga-Lite upper, as opposed to some of the synthetic releases we’ve seen. You can also see in the same photo that Ashley Cole has also picked up the new White/Green Tiempo IV colourway.

Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik (Rennes) – Puma PowerCat 1.12

Despite the PowerCat range being one of the less popular boots on the market 12 months ago, the range has come in leaps and bounds to be one of the most improved boots on the market in the past 6 months. Puma certainly know how to keep their fans happy, as they’ve released blackout and whiteout editions of the Puma PowerCat 1.12. Only a few hundred editions of the whiteout PowerCat 1.12s were released to the market, and Jean-Armel Kana-Biyik can count himself extremely lucky getting his hands on a pair.

Hilton (Montpellier) – adidas miCoach F50 adiZero (Custom)

While Pascal Chimbonda has expertly blacked out his Predator adiPowers above, Montpellier’s Hilton shows us what happens when you don’t do it very well. It’s clear that Hilton’s boots started life as a pair of High Energy/Electricity miCoach adiZeros, but the effect is now starting to wear away. It seems Hilton will need to hit the workshop in the next few days to redo the job!

Stephen Ireland (Aston Villa) – Nike Mercurial Vapor VIII

With all the hype surrounding the launch of the MVIII, there was always going to be a few players who would be switching over to Nike’s newest Vapor. While Stephen Ireland isn’t contracted to any companies, he has been switching between the adiZero and Mercurial range over the past 2 years. He’s now made the switch from the adiZero to the Vapor range. Could this be a one off, or could this be the sign of a permanent change from Ireland?

Domingo Francisco (Cuba) – adidas F5 TRX

Not everyone can afford to have the most expensive boots on the market, but it’s not too often that we see a professional footballer wearing what is one of the cheapest boots on the market. Cuba’s Domingo Francisco is wearing the F5 TRX, which doesn’t come with the triangular studs that are seen on the F50, F30 and F10. It’s the absolute budget version of the adiZero, and yet Domingo Francisco is playing for his national team with the budget boots.

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