Here on Footy Boots, we spend a lot of time talking about elite players wearing elite products. So it’s good to report that recognition at the lower end of the scale is thriving.

Just ask Matt Busby. Having the same name as the legendary Manchester United manager, Matt was always hopeful of success when he took over as boss of Hinckley Sunday League team Enderby Social FC.

And following in the footsteps of his namesake, his management skills have been rewarded with the title of Carling’s Pub Football Manager of the Year 2008.

Matt, 25, from Whetstone, Leicester, has managed Enderby Social FC for just one season but has already made a difference to the side who ply their trade in the Hinckley and District Sunday League.

The Carling Pub Football Awards, a national awards programme now in its second year, celebrates some of the often overlooked sporting triumphs taking place every weekend on pitches across the UK.

Teams, players, managers, referees, and fans up and down the country were asked to nominate their mates for the awards earlier in the year.  The Awards were then judged by a sporting panel that included ITV Football Pundit Robbie Earle and Daily Mail Columnist Des Kelly.

Matt, who was nominated for the award by pal and team mate Richard Edwards, said: “To win the award is an absolute honour – I’d like to thank the team and everyone associated with the club for their support and contribution.”

On his name sake Sir Matt Busby, Matt said: “My dad supported Manchester United – and obviously with my surname there was no other name to call me!  I’ve got his autobiography and have taken my inspiration from the great man.  I study his management skills and hope that the lads think that my approach is calm and positive too.”

Richard Edwards, who nominated Matt for the award and who has known him since their playschool days, said: “He has earned the respect as a manager from all of us.  I can’t speak more highly of this man as a manager and a mate – there are only two Matt Busbys!”

On Enderby’s hopes for next season, Matt said: “Last season we won the Les Moore Trophy, came third in the League, and got promoted to Division Two.  We’ve got three or four new players coming in this season, so I’ll need to make a few decisions on the team – but we’re a passionate bunch of lads who will make that step up.”

The award comes from ‘One – All’ Carling’s online community owned and shaped by pub and amateur football teams across the UK – over 4000 teams have already signed up. Registered teams can create their own free website to keep in touch with the rest of the team, complete player profiles, upload match highlights and debate the issue of the day with other teams.

Robbie Earle, ITV Football Pundit and one of Awards’ judging panel said: “We received nominations from clubs all over the country.  It’s great to see Carling giving everyday footballers the recognition they deserve.”

Jim Shearer, Head of Sponsorship Carling, said: “Congratulations to Matt and Enderby Social FC.  It’s great to be able to celebrate Matt’s success and hear about his dedication to the lads.

“Pub football is all about getting together with your mates every week and enjoying the game.  The awards are the perfect opportunity to reward the teams and individuals who help to keep pub football alive.”

Having already lost their opening World Cup qualifier to Kazakhstan by 3 goals to nil, no-one is expecting the minnows of Andorra to give England too many problems when they meet in Barcelona tomorrow.

Mind you, we all thought that back in March 2007 and at half time in the European Championship qualifier, the score was Andorra 0 v 0 England. England went on to win the game 3 – 0 but not before the team and then coach Steve McClaren took some awful stick from the travelling supporters.

They may not have the players, but they do at least have some decent footwear. Footy Boots looks at some of key match ups which could decide tomorrow’s game.

John Terry v Fernando Silva

The England captain probably won’t have to make too many difficult decisions on who to mark in this game as Silva normally plays on his own up front.

The Androrran hit man (if you can call him that with a return of 2 goals from 22 matches) will put his Adidas Predator Power Swerve’s up against Terry’s Umbro SX Valor’s.

Frank Lampard v Xavier Andorra

Every fan in the world knows that Lampard plays for Chelsea. Probably not too many are aware that Andorra (cunningly named after his own country) is the midfield dynamo for Binefar who are in the 4th tier of the Spanish league.

This though could be an interesting encounter as the 23 year Andorra, who’ll be winning his 10th cap, is becoming something of a first choice for national manager David Rodrigo.

As for the boots on show, it’s Lampard’s Adidas adiPURE’s versus Andorra’s Nike Tiempo Legend II’s

Wayne Rooney v Tony Lima

Remember Roger Milla of Cameroon?

No-one seemed to know how old he was but he became a star at the 1990 World Cup scoring 4 goals despite a chronic lack of club football.

Andorra’s Tony Lima is in the same bracket.  At 37 years of age, Lima has given up playing on a weekly basis and only now pulls on the national shirt.

And he does a nice line in getting the opposition wound up as Wayne Rooney will testify to after getting more than a little up tight in the Euro qualifier 18 months ago.

Bootwise, it’s a Nike battle royal, Rooney will be in his Total 90 Laser II’s and Lima in a pair of Air Legends.

Kick off in Barcelona on Saturday evening is 1900 BST.

Andorra flag courtesy of www.33ff.com

Chelsea stopper Petr Cech hit the headlines in the weeks before the 2008 European Cup Final, with his choice of a bright orange coloured goalkeeper shirt for Chelsea.

The shirt was supposedly developed by a Russian scientist, after painstaking research that discovered that the colour was particularly distracting and imposing for opposition players. Perhaps that’s why Holland, a nation of only around 16 million people, has always done so well at football. But then again, it didn’t help Chelsea win anything last season.

Perhaps then we will have to wait to see Chelsea, and Cech’s, performances in the Premiership this season, but the craze might just take off.

The logical corollary of the insanely-brightly coloured goalkeeping shirt, is the insanely brightly coloured goalkeeper glove; and with the new ‘Touch / Feel’ goalkeeper gloves, specialist goalkeeping brand Kaliaaer have produced exactly that.

With the first release in what is to be a sequence of fluorescent goalkeeper glove designs in the Touch / Feel range, the pink and yellow Kaliaaer goalkeeper gloves come with the express job spec of making a glove that “not only looks unique, but also makes the hand seem larger and more distracting to oncoming players”. And distracting they certainly will be. It’s not impossible that goalkeepers may even employ new hand waving tactics in one-on-one situations in order to mesmerise oncoming strikers into tripping over their own feet. Well, perhaps that’s taking it too far, but you get the picture.

One thing that Cech didn’t do with his orange jersey was to vary the colours. He probably felt that bright orange was enough. But the Kaliaaer Touch / Feel goalkeeper gloves are highly unusual in that each hand of the gloves is actually a different colour. The right hand features a traditional white body with fluorescent pink stripe and wrist bandage, with the left hand identical but in fluorescent yellow instead. This is one of the features that sets out the Kaliaaer T/F goalkeeper gloves as one of the most interesting goalkeeping equipment releases of the season.

Importantly, the new Kaliaaer T/F goalkeeper gloves aren’t just about appearance. They are a very finely constructed model of goalkeeper gloves, well cut, incorporating a number of top technological features.

The palm is constructed from Kaliaaer’s own ‘aerGrip’ foam, which received very strong reviews from senior goalkeepers in trials and pre-release. The gloves also feature SSG grooved latex foam on the inside of the palm, aiming to increase friction between the hands and the gloves, thereby reducing movement and slippage.

One of our favourite features of the glove is the moulded “tyre track” backhand, which is a design feature contributing to the gloves’ unique appearance.

For full details on the glove specification, see below.

There’s no getting away from it, the Kaliaaer Touch / Feel gloves will fiercely divide opinion. For the shrinking violets among goalkeepers, the idea of stepping out onto the pitch in such bold and stark apparel may well be a bridge too far. Nevertheless, with goalkeepers, like Cech, more interested in technological development, innovation and – let’s be frank – just making a statement, the Kaliaaer Touch / Feel goalkeeper gloves will prove hugely popular.

Glove Spec:

BRAND - Kaliaaer
GLOVE CUT - Roll finger / Gunn cut
CONDITIONS - All weather, soft ground
PALM TYPE - 3.2 aerGrip latex
PALM INTERIOR - 3.0 inner SSG grooved latex
PALM LENGTH - Wrist length
CLOSURE - NeoSecure’ neoprene wrist bandage.Full latex “Vault.2″ wrist strap

KALIAAER TOUCH / FEEL GOALKEEPER GLOVES

It must be fantastic being a football boot brand executive.

One minute, you’re sitting in the office with your Jimmy Choo loafers resting on your fake mahogany topped desk, and then next, you take a phone call and find out that one of your leading lights has swapped a middle of the road club for one of the biggest teams in the world.

Not that Dimitar Berbatov’s Adidas agent wouldn’t have seen it coming. Though the £30 million bid from Manchester City probably caused him to choke on his cappuccino (extra skinny milk, no sugar).

Adidas must have been cracking open the bubbly the moment Berbatov’s transfer from Spurs to Manchester United was completed – even if it was 40 minutes after the official closing time?

No disrespect to Tottenham, but now Adidas have another player on the biggest European stage of all who can show off his skills and of course his football boots, and in Berbatov’s case, they are the Predator Power Swerves (recently voted as the most comfortable football boots of the year in the Footy-Boots.com Football Boot Awards 2008). Talk about win win for Adidas!

The same could be said of Robinho’s move from Real Madrid to Manchester City.

Sure, the two teams (at least for the moment ) don’t quite compare. One’s the best in the whole of Spain, the other’s not even the best in its own city, but Nike won’t mind that one little bit. Such is the draw of the Premier League to TV audiences around the world, Robinho’s Nike Vapor IV’s will get tons more exposure even though he’s moved away from the Bernabeu and won’t be playing Champions League football.

Back to Adidas and another of their charges who’s made a big money move, Roman Pavlyuchenko who’s swapped Spartak Moscow for Tottenham.

Surely the stage is set for the Russian superstar to make the same impact on the Premier League as he did in his Adidas F50.8’s at Euro 2008.

These are just three big boot moves which should give their respective brands even more exposure. If you think there are better value moves out there, tell us here.

There are The Oscars, The Baftas, The Country Music Awards and the Farmers Weekly Awards. All important in their own right (as it’s vital to know the identity of Norfolk’s leading combine harvester driver) but a very poor second to the one true poll of poll’s, the Footy Boots.com Football Boots Awards 2008.

Leading global brands from the football boot industry nominated their football boots in six categories;

Categories:

Football Boot Brand of the Year

2007 defending champions Nike

Football Boot of the Year

2007 defending champion Nike Total 90 Laser

Best Looking Football Boot of the Year

2007 defending champion, Adidas F50 Tunit 2

Most Innovative Football Boot of the Year

2007 defending champions, Adidas F50 Tunit 2

Most Comfortable Football Boot of the Year

2007 defending champions, Adidas Predator Absolute

Football Shirt of the Year

This new category will herald your chosen Premier League home shirt of the past season.

Over recent weeks, nearly 14,000 footballers, fans and football boot lovers cast their votes in our public ballot and when the results were calculated, one brand excelled. the Footy Boots Football Boots Awards 2008. When the results were counted one brand really excelled.

View the results of the Football Boots Awards 2008