We’ve seen players drop certain colourways because they prefer their old boots (Fernando Torres, Javier Hernandez), we’ve seen players swap to old football boots because of the weather (Cristiano Ronaldo), we’ve even seen players fined some seriously big dollar for wearing the wrong brand of boots.
But we’ve never seen the Board of Directors of one of the most-followed clubs in the World tell a player that their cleats are unacceptable. Until this weekend.
Former Inter Milan and Roma striker Adriano was told late last week by the board of directors at his new club, Corinthians, that his new football boots were not acceptable to wear whilst representing the club.
Adriano was set to join dozens of fellow Mercurial wearers, including Mesut Ozil, Cristiano Ronaldo and Theo Walcott, playing this weekend in the new Volt / Retro Superfly III until the order from the Cortinthians higher-ups came through.
The reason? The ‘Volt’ colourway that covers the majority of the new speed football boots too closely resembles that used on the kits of rivals Palmeiras FC.
Nike, keen to have all their players wearing the latest colourway, attempted to reason that the new Volt / Retro Superfly III bares no resemblance to that of Corinthians’ great rivals.
The Home and Third kits of rivals Palmeiras
But that did little to sway the board, who pointed out that it was neigh-identical to Palmeiras FC’s third kit, which is in adidas’ now-signature ‘electricity’ hue.
So, rather than the personalised Superfly III‘s ‘The Emperor’ has trained in all week, the former Selecao striker had to make do with the Granite/Red Superfly III this weekend against' Atletico Goianiense, that was approved by the board as being adequately ‘neutral’.
Whilst definitely one of the more bizarre football boots-stories we’ve had the pleasure of featuring for you here on Footy-Boots.com, the colour of rival clubs plays a part in boot selection more often than you may think.
Rafael van der Vaart, for example, told Footy-Boots.com in an interview earlier this year he had to request a pair of the new CTR360 II football boots in the ‘secondary’ Blue/White colourway from Nike.
The reason was, of course, his team-mates had heavily hinted that he wouldn’t be exactly endearing himself to the White Hart Lane faithful by wearing the ‘lead’ colour scheme of Red/White; the colours of massive rivals Arsenal.
What do you think to this slightly crazy story?
Are the board right to ask players to be mindful of the football boots they choose to wear?
Or should they have better things to be doing than keeping tabs on the cleats of every player in the squad?
Let us know in the comments!
Interesting article! van der Vaart’s situation makes a bit more sense than Adriano’s though… the neon has been a staple of Palmeiras third kit for a while, but “not acceptable” because of their third kit, really? It’s not like he (and all Nike sponsored athletes) will be in the same colorway for more than two weeks anyways… does the coaching staff have the right to determine… yeah, maybe… the club’s board of directors… no way. Suits should focus on the board room, footballers should focus on the football…
this
cant agree more. VDV wearing the white/blue combo looks better wi the spurs kit than if he wore the red. ashley cole choosing to stick with the red in his chelsea shirt doesnt look quite right.Â
Surprised Adriano allowed to wear the granite/red ones since they bear a passing resemblance to the Sao Paulo home kit. Consistency = nil.
Completely idiotic decision by the board i feel. What next..? Ban all players from wearing boots other than Nike..??
Ban all plastic bs boots and stick with hi-grade made boots.
well they have at least banned coloured boots from academy’s, think they can only wear black or white untill they make it?
I don’t think I’d cared if it resembles another club’s colors I would be disappointed because the Mercurial line is a “SPEED” boot and fat people who don’t score are not allowed to wear it, let alone bright colors. Fast people who score please, no mids, d’s or gk’s.
Disregard that, I suck cocks.
What? How about fast wingbacks like Marcelo?
IÂ thought the same thing would happen at Celtic. When a couple of players in the Celtic team had orange boots on that there might have been a bit of uproar.
Orange being dominant with Rangers if people didn’t realise!Â
http://www.maccasports.co.uk
not quite. the orange is more to do with the orange order walk. so its more of a catholic/protestant thing than rangers/celtic.
youtube search young talent…. Marcus Hairston #17 …great player!
i can remember wehen ribery starts to play for Bayern he had some blue mercurialÂ
and the fans didn’t like ist because of 1869 MĂĽnchen so he changed them