Joke contracts

Whilst it’s completely understandable for clubs to get very hot under the collar after losing a player they have spotted and nurtured to a rival, I do find it extraordinary that they all seem to play the ‘contract’ card. Of course, if a youngster is under contract to a club, that club should be suitable rewarded if he’s wanted by another party.

However, contracts themselves have been largely worthless in football for years. How many times have we seen a club employ a new manager on a 3 year deal, only for the bloke to be shown the door after a few months, all be it with a bit of compo? Or the player who signs a 4 year deal and is then shipped off to another side when a younger, more impressive individual comes along? Just as Chelsea have been found guilty of wrongdoing, so all of football is just as guilty for making the contract nothing more than an administrative tool.

Bilic on Eduardo

Slaven Bilic has been talking a good game ahead of Croatia’s World Cup qualifier against England at Wembley and has also gone out of his way to offer his backing to under-fire striker Eduardo. Bilic said: “He knows that he is 100 per cent honest. He knows that he did nothing wrong.”

Sorry Slaven, but that’s just pish. Eduardo dived for Arsenal versus Celtic. You know it, he knows it and we know it. Whilst there are many, myself included, who think that Eduardo’s punishment is far too excessive, what Bilic should have said is “What Eduardo did, every other player in the professional game has also done many times over.” At least he’d have a few more people on his side that way.

England expects

It’s hard to believe that 22 months ago, England fans watched dumbfounded as Steve McLaren stood under his brolly as England failed to qualify for the European Championships. Tonight, they have a chance to reach the World Cup finals with a bit to spare.

You have to say that Capello has done a masterful job but…..it’s just so un-English isn’t it? We’re used to final game heroics, bloodied last ditch performances by the likes of Butcher and Ince and even other teams needing to do us a favour. This qualifying with ease lark….I’m not sure I’ll be able to get used to it.

Becks not counting on County

Most pointless headline of the week has to be: “Beckham rules out Notts County move.” Due respect to Sven’s new men but as if a current England player would consider a move to League Two. Which got me thinking about other headlines that should also be given short thrift. Stuff like:

Supermodel falls on catwalk. There was definitely contact with a stray piece of glitter says agent.

I have dived in an attempt to win, admits Tom Daley.

Warnock unhappy with (…………….). Insert name of referee, opposition player, opposition manager, Football League as appropriate.

Heskey replaced at half time. Obviously.

So, what a week it’s been in the world of football boots! Topping the list of talking points has to be the John Terry ‘adidas vs Umbro’ battle (with ‘Chelsea vs. Man City’ undercurrents). 

One debate that this convulted tale has thrown up is the idea of player obligation to their sponsor during the pre-season; in a perfect world a player would spend pre-season deciding what boots best suit him, decide which they love by the first game of the season and subsequently be sponsored for doing so; but as we all know this is not the case!

So when a player decides to ‘test drive’ a pair of boots from another brand in a training session or pre-season friendly there are many things that people can read into it; i.e. the player is not happy with his current boots or maybe his team-mate has recommended a pair that he feels would suit their style. But sometimes the reason is far more pedestrian, or in Umbro’s case; downright bizarre.

So, why all the fuss about a preseason kickabout - surely it’s the best time to try out other boots?

As a fan and boots anorak, I love to see players really considering their choice in boots in the summer months - placing the same amount of thought you or I do in what boot best suits their game. I’m a Leeds United fan (stop laughing/jeering at the back!) and during last year’s pre-season matches I watched Jermaine Beckford test 3 pairs of boots (f50.8, Vapor III and adiPure, for those interested) before settling on the tunit range for the rest of the season.

However, as difficult as it may be to summon sympathy for multi-billion pound conglomorates; is it fair on the sponsors to see players trailing another company’s wares? In short, no. While a player is signed to a boots company he really should be playing in their boots - pre season, summer tournament or mid-season.

It matters most  for teams like Chelsea, Barcelona, AC Milan and Manchester United - where the pre-season usually involves some pretty far flung travels - so for sponsors of the players on these teams this is a great opportunity to see their boots reach a new audience - for example, during Real Madrid’s notorious 2003 pre-season of the Far East; can you imagine how many extra pairs of ‘Beckham-San’ colourway Predators adidas sold?

A great example of a happy medium is Ashley Cole’s recent trials of Puma’s speed boot, the v1.08, which has been a fantastic example of a player doing things respectfully - while his contract is up from negotiation, see which brand best represents his interests as a player and find out which boot that they produce that best compliments his style of play.

Personally, I’d like to see that all sponsorship contracts run in terms of seasons, with the pre-season and post-season exempt from their contracts which I think would work on several levels:

Firstly, it’d be added incentive for the players - if they want additional sponsorship for the summer tournaments like World Cups, European Championships or Confederations Cup they’d obviously be having to play well enough to be selected for the national team.

This would also work well for the sponsors, as they wouldn’t be paying money for players to be wearing their boots who aren’t actually playing during the summer.

Secondly, it’d be a constant push for manufacturers to be at the top of their game - players are tied to boot manufacturers for years at a time, so they always get the latest models and colours but then you see Luka Modric and Yossi Benayoun playing in older versions of the Mercurial Vapor range and Kaka in modified adiPure I’s so they’re clearly not too bigger fans of the newer models. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see what they really prefer playing in when there’s no money involved?

However - the Chelsea ‘Bootgate’ scandal was enough to get the Footy Boots users posting and speculating in droves, perhaps it’s hypocritical to say I don’t enjoy the rumourmill as much as everyone else!

Moving on

Geez, do I get cross with football fans moaning that it’s disloyal for players to move to other clubs. This is the argument currently being put forward by some Chelsea fans following Manchester City’s approaches for John Terry. JT, let’s remember, has served Chelsea with diligence and distinction for years now so why shouldn’t he consider a better offer from another employer?

Of course, football supporters are a tribal lot but let’s face it, if you, for example, are a plumber, bank worker, architect or mechanic and are offered 2 or 3 times your current wages and better perks to do the same job in a different geographical location are you really going to turn that down? Of course not.

Money well spent

You’ve just spent hundreds of millions of euros on the likes of Ronaldo, Benzema and others and, in an effort to bed them in slowly, you play a friendly against a team of Irish part-timers. Result. Rubbish. OK, Madrid weren’t playing at anywhere near full capacity but they were matched for 87 minutes by Shamrock Rovers on Monday night. Kaka was probably more than happy to be watching on TV as he recovers from his excursions at the Confederations Cup.

Ronaldo was shackled by 20 year old local lad Ian Bermingham and it took a goal 3 minutes from time by Benzema to snatch victory. Contrast that with Villarreal who beat Spanish minnows Navata 27 – 0. Perhaps they weren’t hamstrung by having to do a ton of pointless pre-match PR in front of the usual bunch of ‘if it’s Madrid it must be good’ hangers on?

The wrong move

There’s not too much honesty in the game these days so you’ve just got to love Alexander Hleb and David Beckham. Both have made moves of late to better their careers and have enjoyed contrasting fortunes. Beckham is back in the England team after his time with Milan while Hleb is little more than a bench warmer for Barcelona following his transfer from Arsenal.

But both have had the courage to front up recently – Beckham to a bunch of rowdy fans on his return to LA Galaxy and Hleb to the press, admitting that his move to Spain was a mistake and that he should have stayed at the Gunners.

Sven’s new men

So, Sven Goran Eriksson is back in the game, as Director of Football at Noots County. The club, if you didn’t know, play in League Two in England in front of crowds of around 5000. Nice to know that Sven has at last found his true level.

David Beckham has revealed that he and Landon Donovan have patched up their differences following the US International’s criticism of the former England captain.

Beckham and Donovan at LA Galaxy training

Beckham, who has been on a whirlwind media tour this week following his arrival back in the States, spoke at an LA Galaxy press conference where he reaffirmed his support for the club and the MLS in general.

Beckham said:

I’m very dedicated to the Galaxy, I’m dedicated to the fans.

I’ve always been very positive and very honest with my play here and also when I went to Milan, I explained to everyone the reasoning behind it. I said to the players and I said to the manager that I would be coming back. Maybe one or two didn’t believe me, but at the end of the day I’m here, I’m committed to the team.

The Galaxy presser was the third media job for Beckham who had earlier appeared on NBC’s “Today Show” and “Live with Regis and Kelly”. Answering questions about the World Cup in 2010, Beckham intimated that he would be looking to play again in Europe ahead of the tournament saying:

The England manager has made it very clear to me I need to be playing at a European level. I’ll always regret it if I didn’t do everything to give myself the chance to be involved in that.

Meanwhile, Beckham explained that he’d sat down with team mate Landon Donovan after a much publicized spat. Returning from the Confederations Cup, where he helped the USA reach the final, Donovan was sharply critical of the England player.

Donovan arrives for training clutching his Nike Merurial Vapor IV’s

Quoted in a book “The Beckham Experiment” by Grant Wahl, Donovan said:

All that we care about at a minimum is that he committed himself to us. As time has gone on, that has not proven to be the case in many ways – on the field, off the field.

Does the fact that he earns that much money come into it? Yeah. If someone’s paying you more than anybody in the league, more than double anybody in the league, the least we expect is that you show up to every game, whether you’re suspended or not.

Show up and train hard. Show up and play hard. Maybe he’s not a leader, maybe he’s not a captain. Fair enough. But at a minimum you should bust your ass every day. That hasn’t happened. And I don’t think that’s too much for us to expect. Especially when he’s brought all this on us.

Despite the stinging comments, Beckham revealed that the Galaxy manager Bruce Arena had arranged a meeting between the two players following the 1 – 0 win over Chivas USA in the SuperClasico on Saturday explaining:

It was actually the manager that brought us together.

We knew that we had to speak once we were back in the same country. We sat down, went through everything. Landon apologized and I told him my view on things and it’s forgotten about.

Very cold and wrapped around him - not Victoria for Becks this time but an ice pack 

On the pitch, Donovan and Beckham are expected to play together against New York Red Bulls on Thursday. However, it’s not clear whether the England player will start or come on from the bench.

Football is audacious. Cruyff’s turn, ‘The Ronaldinho’, Messi’s irresistible dribbling, Van Basten’s finishing, Xavi’s passing, Beckham’s crossing and Bill Shankly’s quotes are but a few factors that enable me to safely say, football is audacious.

Above even these points, it’s a safe bet to say footballers are audacious too. Whether it’s crashing cars, fighting in bars or completely insane hair do’s, the men we watch week in week out are in many cases, completely bonkers!

Over the years their choice in football boots has heightened the assumption of craziness, and in some cases complete lunacy. This week I look into five memorable football boot moments over the years.

1. “To run where the brave dare not go”

First up we have the late great Alan Ball. The early seventies were probably a time of lost identity and pointless acts of “character” if Alan Ball is anything to go by. After painting his football boots white and deciding he was to become the first man to play in white football boots, his dreams were all but flushed (excuse the pun) into the mud when the inevitable rain came. A few minutes and abusive fans later, Alan surely decided once you go black, you never go back! Little did he know at the time, he was a revolutionary!

2. “You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy”

Quite possibly the most idiotic and simple act ever to grace the football boot world was one plundered by a certain Stanley Bowles. After cementing his reputation as the rock n roll star of seventies English football, Bowles decided he was such a hero that he could command two football boot sponsorships at once.  So when England played Holland in 1978 Bowles took to the pitch with one Gola and one Adidas boot.  Aside from looking like a plank with odd boots, the plan failed and Bowles continued his maverick career.

3. “When the itch is inside the boot, scratching outside provides little consolation”

Maybe I’m on my own here but I thought Lee Dixon was an excellent full back. He had the ability to defend his lines with ease and competency and got forward like many buccaneering full backs do in today’s relentlessly fast game. However one day in Dixon’s life will always be remembered above many others, for a stunning 30 yard goal in his new Brook’s boots. The boot had been ridiculed as Brook’s Builders Boot or Brook’s Wellies due to its enormous size and weight. Dixon looked embarrassingly immobile in the boot even though it was evident he could punt it a long way. It’s just a shame he punted it 30 yards over David Seaman and into his own goal!

4. “You may have a heart of gold, but so does a hardboiled egg”

Zinedine Zidane came into the 2006 World Cup safe in the knowledge his reputation as the modern days greatest player was intact. Surely nothing could ruin his swansong. His performances were sublime, a blast from the past and his golden shimmering boots were a delight on the eye. Made especially for the great man and never sold on the open market, his Adidas Predators were arguably the most popular in the brands long line. However much like a hardboiled egg, his gold on the inside was replaced by white light on the outside as his phenomenal career, and boots, saw a premature and trophyless end.

5. “What is character but the determination of an incident?”

David Beckham is the world’s most recognizable footballer. His face is the model for numerous Adidas football campaigns across the globe and his ability to pass, cross and assist has never been in question. However what remains a mystery is the infamous boot in the face incident. After apparently requiring two stitches and sporting a lovely cut above the left eye, Beckham’s relationship with Ferguson reached the point of no return. My question is this, what boot hit Beckham? Was it Adidas, Umbro, Reebok? Surely it would be a real kick in the face if it was a Nike? Either way, I wonder if that boot still lives on today, as someone could make a mint selling that on eBay!

And there you have it, five memories that will live long in the mind ranging from incredible stupidity to hardboiled eggs! Please know these are merely my opinionated five, get involved in the comments section and let us know your top football boot memories!

David Beckham equalled Bobby Moore’s record of 108 England caps for an outfield player after coming on as a substitute in the 2-0 defeat in Spain. Footy Boots takes  look back at Beckham’s international career.

Debut

Beckham made his first appearance for England in the autumn of 1996 when he played against Moldova in a World Cup qualifier. Two years on, he was a regular in the side and played in all of their qualifying matches as England progressed to the World Cup finals in France.

World Cup 1998

He missed out on the first 2 games of the tournament but returned for the group match against Colombia and scored from his now ‘trademark’ free kick.

However, his darkest days as an international player soon followed when he was sent off against Argentina in the last 16 as England bowed out of the Finals on penalties. Beckham was blamed by some fans and journalists for England’s exit and he also received death threats.

Captain

The abuse continued as Beckham ‘s international career went on but following the resignation of Glenn Hoddle, he was made captain by caretaker boss Peter Taylor, a role he was to make his own under Sven Goran Eriksson.

World Cup 2002

Under the Swede, England prospered and made it to the finals of the 2002 World Cup, a run that included a 5  - 1 win away to Germany in Munich and a 1 man show by the Manchester United player who scored another long range free kick to force a 2 – 2 draw at home to Greece in the last group match.

An injury meant he wasn’t fully fit by the time the Finals were played but he was still good enough to slot home a penalty in the group stages as the South Americans failed to qualify for the second round. England though lost out to Brazil in the knockout stages.

Euro 2004

Euro 2004 was a disappointment for both the team and Beckham personally. He had a penalty saved in England’s 2–1 defeat to France and missed another in a penalty shootout in the quarter final against Portugal. Yet again, England were eliminated on spot kicks.

The following year came another unwanted statistic as he became the first England captain to be sent off (against Austria) and also the first England player to be sent off twice.

Wolrd Cup 2006

It got better in 2006 as Beckham had a hand in a number of England goals in the group stages of the 2006 World Cup finals. In the second round, he scored from yet another free kick, becoming the first English player to score in 3 World Cup’s. But his luck ran out against Portugal in the quarter finals as he was substituted because of injury. Needless to say, the team lost out on spot kicks. The next day, he stepped down as captain.

England Axe

New coach Steve McClaren then dropped him from the squad but had a change of heart in the spring of 2007 as Beckham was recalled. Club wise, he had moved from Real Madrid to the LA Galaxy and it was unclear whether the transfer would be the end of his international career. However, he didn’t immediately miss out on tournament football as England failed to qualify for Euro 2008, which resulted in McClaren being dismissed.

Fabio

New coach Fabio Capello recalled his ex Madrid charge to the national squad and oversaw his 100th cap as Beckham joined an elite number of players (5) to reach a century. And, during the 2010 World Cup qualifier against Belarus in which England won 3-1 in Minsk, Beckham came off the bench in the 87th minute to earn his 107th cap making him England’s 3rd highest capped player in history over-taking Sir Bobby Charlton in the process.

Beckham’s Boots

David Beckham wears an Adidas signature football boot the Predator PowerSwerve DB

Highlights

• Predator technology in the forefoot for more power, swerve, and ball contact
• Synthetic leather upper for lightweight durability: Elastic tongue strap for a secure fit
• Exchangeable PowerPulse insole for kicking power
• Two-density asymmetrical heel counter for optimal comfort, fit, and stability
• Split outsole for optimised weight and flexibility

Players: David Beckham

Availability: Around March 2009

Price: RRP £120

Simon Skirrow of Nomis has revealed that one of his strategies of keeping his company profitable against the bigger boys in the boot market is to avoid sponsoring Premier League superstars, and instead to look to amateur and grass-roots players for free endorsements and development. But is this an effective strategy? I decided to look into the figures that have got the bigger companies where they are and see if it’s a worthwhile trade off.

Footy-boots recently revealed that, on a typical retainer for an England international, l could look to earn around £100,000 a year on a boot contract. Obviously some will be more and others significantly less, but given flagship players like Beckham and Owen will earn much, much more it seems like a good average to work with.

So for a full squad of players there’s potentially over £2 million in sponsorship deals. Meaning that this squad is hopefully going to influence 26,250 people to go out and buy new boots (at an average of £80 a pair) like their heroes, with each hero hopefully selling 1,250 pairs of cleats around the world.

Given that each new incarnation of a boot like the Total 90 Laser II or Predator range is usually revamped in time for a major tournament, using Euro 2008 as an example, a company like Nike or Adidas could be spending up to around £2 million in sponsorship for any one of the popular squads (obviously much less for the ‘minnow’ countries) to try and get the rest of the country into some new boots. So an educated guess might place their player sponsorship total at around £25 million for a continental tournament that is shown around the world. And so a question - could the sales of something as humble as a pair of footy boots possibly match such a huge total?

Adidas Predator Control

On the other hand, for a company like Nomis - who offers no professional sponsorship contracts - this is not a massive amount of money to spend, it’s a massive amount to save! Whilst it probably wouldn’t offer such lucrative deals or indeed have that money to invest in player contracts in the first place, it can afford to sell 312,500 less boots than a massive manufacturer whilst, based on the theory that they have somewhat similar production costs per unit, and still remain a profitable operation.

So, on paper, Nomis look to have a great strategy - don’t gamble massive sums on players having a huge influence over the boot-buying public, instead invest that money into keeping your bottom line solid and continue investing in product innovation. It’s a fantastic strategy that has sensibility at it’s core and helps guarantee that smaller boot companies will still continue to give us writers and fans something to report on and chat about, even in the current climate.

So what about the big companies? Have Nike and Adidas been wasting their money? Could they have invested those huge amounts of cash into paying a designer to develop a Mercurial Vapour V, instead of just painting a stripe on the IV’s?

Nike Mercurial Vapor V

A look at Adidas’ sales figures for the 3 months after Euro 2008 - available in their quarterly reports - showed that the sportswear giant’s ‘Sport Performance’ division’s (boots, running shoes, basketball trainers) year to date revenues were an astronomical €4.813 billion with football being the category claiming the majority of the growth.

Taking the term ‘majority’ at it’s loosest definition, this must mean the revenue generated from football products was over €2 billion. With boots being the most expensive item in most sportswear ranges, it’s fair to assume that they’re probably a big factor in that sum - but even if they were only responsible for a quarter of that remaining profit - the ‘humble footy boot’ still returned £250 million for the estimated £25m invested, and based on the average price per pair of boots - over 3 million pairs of boots sold.

Could this massive figure (that could fit 1 in every 5 human beings in the British Isles in a pair of boots) be pinned down to the hero-worship for players like Villa, Podolski and Robben? It certainly couldn’t hurt…

It’s definitely a massive call to make for any boot company - do you take a method that is guaranteed to save your business money or do you gamble on getting your name onto players feet, and ultimately, into the buying publics heads?

Leave your comments below with what you think is the best way for any company to sell boots.

Does it depend on the specialist nature of the boots?

Is it ultimately down to the way the company is run?

I know many of our regular readers were very vocal on Mr. Skirrow’s take on the debate in his interview and I’d love to hear back from anyone that reads the article! As already mentioned, please do use the comments section.

Slight disclaimer: A lot of the figures in my article are pieced together from the sparse bits of information available online to armchair journos like myself and are merely a tool to help anyone that reads the article get a better understanding, and most importantly, some enjoyment out of the economics of footy boots.

Transfer Window

Doubtless most managers and chief executives will argue in favour of the January transfer window because, should they find themselves in a spot of bother, they can splash the cash and try and buy their way out of it. But in pure monetary terms it seems totally unsustainable to me. You only have to look at Robbie Keane’s move back to Spurs. He cost Liverpool over £20 million in the summer, and they’ve just sold him back to the London club for £12 million plus add on’s a mere 7 months later. Even if the total price comes to £15 million, that still represents a staggering 25% loss in a little over half a year. Not as bad perhaps as some of the UK high street banks have performed recently, but still appalling business for Liverpool however you look at it.

A Levy on sales

While the buy-back of Robbie Keane was a financial success for Tottenham, it surely casts an ever greater shadow over the work of the club’s former hierarchy. Keane is one of three players now back at the club a short while after being released, the others being Jermain Defoe and Pascal Chimbonda. As for the chairman Daniel Levy who remains in office, one can only wonder how he now feels about the vigorous defence he afforded the previous regime which gave ex sporting director Damien Comolli control over sales and purchases.

Beckham’s Italian Job

I wonder how many of those national newspaper sportswriters who suggested that David Beckham’s loan to AC Milan was little more than a gimmick and a glorified training stint, will write about the fact that the Italian side are now pulling out all the stops to keep him. Beckham has started all 5 of Milan’s  games since his loan spell began, scoring twice and most recently setting up another 2 goals in the 3 – 0 win away to Lazio. He also seems to be forcing his way back in to Fabio Capello’s thinking. It’s no surprise. Beckham is a model pro. His critics, who seem to blur his personal life with his professional one would do well to remember that.

Barnsley Justice

The Barnsley boss Simon Davey was hauled before a disciplinary committee recently and fined £500 for having a dig at an assistant referee. Nothing too untoward about that you might think, but it’s unlikely that anyone at the Yorkshire club will agree with you. The reason? Davey’s comments came in the very same game last November when his captain Iain Hume was left fighting for his life with serious head injuries following a challenge from the Sheffield United player Chris Morgan. And what action have the FA taken after that incident. Well, as it happens, the initials FA sum it up rather well.

Footy Boots is continually striving to find the best football video’s on the web and this week we’ve  been granted access to some exclusive films made on behalf of sports-memorabilia.eu.

The video’s, five in total, feature a number of former players, many of whom are still very high profile due to the punditry work they are doing for TV and radio.

Over the next 2 days, we’ll bring you the first 4 films and then on Christmas Day, a special video, starring Ray Parlour, Alan Smith and Paul Merson which is also going to be aired in the UK on Sky Sports ‘Soccer AM’ Christmas Day show (Sky Sports 1, 10.00am to 12.30pm).

In the first film, auctioneer Russ Williams is attempting to sell a piece of history at a very special price. What on earth could go wrong?

In film number 2, a pair of David Beckham’s football boots are up for grabs before the auctioneer gets rudely interrupted. Keep your eye on the auctioneers assistant (we’re sure he look’s familiar) and also for a few famous faces in the audience.

Don’t forget to log on to Footy Boots tomorrow for 2 more Auction Video films with another impressive cast list and again on Xmas day for the Parlour / Smith / Merson special.

This football boot pairs cool ventilation and Beckham’s signature style with amazing Predator performance.  Expect to see these kicks keeping Becks looking ultra-cool on the pitch.

Adidas and David Beckham have once again teamed up to create this wonderful addition for the adidas Predator PowerSwerve line.

The introduction of a comfortable ClimaCool design paired with the PowerPulse technology makes for a great football boot.

Highlights

• Predator technology in the forefoot for more power, swerve, and ball contact
• Synthetic leather upper for lightweight durability: Elastic tongue strap for a secure fit
• Exchangeable PowerPulse insole for kicking power
• Two-density asymmetrical heel counter for optimal comfort, fit, and stability
• Split outsole for optimised weight and flexibility

ClimaCool 

Like the race cars that inspire them, ClimaCool ® footwear scavenges the slow moving air surrounding a shoe during exercise, and conducts it through aerodynamically optimized air channels to cool the foot.
adidas tested the movement of air around a runner’s shoe and positioned ventilation ducts in locations scientifically proven to maximize air velocity to the foot.

Along with ducts positioned on the sides and outsole of the football boot, every ClimaCool® boot is built with a fully ventilated mesh upper and breathable sock liner to ensure maximum airflow penetrating the boot and cooling the foot from every side. The 360 degree ventilation system transports heat and sweat away from the foot and out of the boot as you exercise, providing a 40% increase in cooling over a conventional running shoe which, in testing, comes surprisingly close to wearing no boot at all.

Players: David Beckham

Availability: Around March 2009

Price: RRP £120

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