Boot spotting: 30th January

It’s proven as the best and only way to kickstart your week, and Soccer Reviews has scoured all four corners of the globe to bring you only the best boot spots from this weekend’s football action. From England, to Spain and Gabon, which boot spots made it through our harsh screening process this week?

Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) – Nike Mercurial Vapor VIII

We’ve seen the Portuguese superstar wearing his own trademark boots for the past few weeks, but Cristiano Ronaldo officially made the move to the sleek White/Blue/Volt Mercurial colourway. Despite the boot being really good looking, CR7 is actually the first person we’ve seen wearing the Superfly III colourway. But much like what we saw on CR7′s old boots, these are actually Vapor VIIIs in disguise as Superfly IIIs.

Daniel Sturridge (Chelsea) – adidas miCoach F50 adiZero

Nike has seemingly lost another player to the clutches of it’s rival, as former T90 Laser IV endorser Daniel Sturridge was decked out in the Red/Yellow/White adidas miCoach F50 adiZero this weekend against QPR. Considering that we didn’t see any images of Sturridge wearing blackout boots to indicate he may be going through contractual issues, it’s quite surprising to see Sturridge suddenly wearing adiZeros without any hints in the past that something like this may happen.

Darren Bent (Aston Villa) – Umbro Speciali R Pro (Custom)

While we are normally used to seeing Umbro Speciali boots in discrete colourways, Darren Bent asked Umbro if they could start producing brighter colourways. So they went away and made him these limited edition Yellow/Purple Speciali R boots! We believe that Umbro won’t be releasing this colourway to the general public, but they look really bright on the pitch! It kinda looks like the same colour scheme of some of the His-Vis Nike EPL footballs we’ve seen in the past too.

David De Gea (Manchester United) – Nike Tiempo Legend IV

He’s been wearing T90 Laser IIIs for the whole season, but David De Gea has made the switch to the ultra soft Tiempo Legend IV in the Black/White/Orange launch colourway. Considering the majority of keepers wear power boots such as the T90 Laser IV or the adiPower, De Gea didn’t go down the common route followed by goalkeepers when he selected the Tiempo Legend IV to be his latest boot of choice.

Tommy Smith (QPR) – Umbro Speciali III Pro

Considering they’ve got stars such as John Terry and Darren Bent on the books, it’s surprising when QPR’s Tommy Smith became only the second player in the EPL to wear the Speciali III Pro behind Andy Carroll, who has only worn the boots once in a game. Considering the Speciali R Pro has got a reputation on Soccer Reviews as the most comfortable boot on the market, is there something about the Speciali III Pro that is putting players off wearing them?

Stuart Nelson (Notts County) – Nike Air Zoom Total 90 III

The FA Cup is always brilliant from a boot spotting perspective, as it always throws up a retro boot spot or two, and this week is no exception! It seems Notts County’s Stuart Nelson has definitely had these Air Zoom Total 90 IIIs for a very long time, and it may be a testament to the durability of the boots if he’s been wearing the same boots for the past few years!

Moussono Charly (Gabon) – adidas Predator PowerSwerve Absolado

Much like the FA Cup, the African Cup of Nations has suddenly developed a reputation for throwing up some fantastic boot spots, and Moussono Charly’s Predator PowerSwerve Absolado boots give you an idea of what to expect from the African Cup of Nations! It’s very rare that we see a footballer in anything but top of the range football boots, but Charly is in fact wearing the cheapest PowerSwerve boot available, proving you don’t need the best boots to be a professional footballer.

Sharbinee Allawee (Terengganu) – adidas Predator adiPower

So it seems Benoit Assou-Ekotto isn’t the only footballer to wear two different football boots on his feet! Malaysian Super League goalkeeper Sharbinee Allawee has settled for a combination that the Tottenham left back made famous earlier this season, wearing two different coloured adiPowers on each feet. We revealed the reason behind Assou-Ekotto’s strange boot choice earlier this year, and we wonder whether Allawee has a similar reason for wearing the two different coloured adiPowers.

Santiago Garcia (Novara Calcio) – Nike Tiempo Legend IV (Custom)

The boot spotting article from the 9th of January saw Massimo Paci of Novara Calcio wearing a NikeID pair of White/Green Nike Tiempo IVs. We spotted Paci’s team mate Santiago Garcia wearing a very similar pair of boots this week. Considering the White/Green colourway will in fact be released very soon to the general public, Garcia may not have a NikeID pair of Tiempo IVs, but he may have just received them early from Nike. Either way, they look very lush on the pitch!

Tomas Rosicky (Arsenal) – Puma PowerCat 1.12

The release of the latest PowerCat has replicated the growth of Puma itself over the past few months, it’s breathed new life into the PowerCat range. With more and more players wearing the new power boot, the release of the new Black/Dark Shadow/Lime colourway has seen one or two players move to the very modern, yet somehow vintage boot. Tomas Rosicky, as well as Man Utd’s Michael Carrick, are the two players we’ve seen so far wearing the latest colourway. Soccer Reviews unboxed it’s own pair of PowerCat 1.12s last week, and we’ll have the first impressions piece on that in the next week or so.

David Silva (Kilmarnock) – Nike Mercurial Vapor II

We’ve got a feeling that this could be a jewel of a boot spot in the eyes of many of our readers, and it’s certainly gone down well with the writers! We always have a soft spot for retro Mercurial boot spots, but it’s not too often that we feature a Vapor II on our boot spotting articles. Kilmarnock’s David Silva is wearing something that we know many people would want to get their hands on, and he’s very fortunate to still have a pair of Vapor IIs that are in such good condition and can still be worn.

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