CUSTOM BOOTS OF THE WORLD CUP

We’ve got a lot of respect for professional footballers who opt for some customisation on their boots – not willing to settle for out-of-the-box normality, some Pro’s go to the manufacturers and ask for more; and that’s an athlete who wants the most from their game.

We also hate them for being able to get custom football boots. But don’t tell them that.

So, we’ve been on the hunt for the best custom boots of the World Cup – and we think we’ve found some good ones – but we’re going to need your help on finding more and choosing the best!

So, here’s our best spots to get you started – then we want you guys to leave us a comment with your best custom-spots, or just telling us which are the best/weirdest customisations!

Nadir Belhadj – Algeria – MiAdidas Predator_X

Here’s one of the more distinctive ones to start off with- Nadir Belhadj of Algeria and Portsmouth has snagged himself a great pair of MiAdidas Customised Predator_X‘s to match his country’s Home and Away kits!

Robinho – Brazil – Nike Mercurial Vapor VI

With the lack of NikeSENSE studs and Glass Fibre sole it’s clear that Robinho prefers the Nike Mercurial Vapor VI. But could you tell that from his left (your right) football boot? Nosiree!

Do we think that Robinho prefers just to have the Lace cover cut off his Vapor VI’s, or is it'  an attempt to make them look more like Superfly II Elites? You decide! Or ask him!

Julio Cesar – Brazil – Mizuno Morelia Blackout

Now, correct us if we’re wrong, but we reckon by the distinctive heel stitching and little box-shape around the top-eyelet that Brazil’s held-together-with-tape robo-keeper Julio Cesar is wearing some heavily-customised Mizuno Morelias.

Obviously having gone to expert lengths to remove and disguise the branding (makes William Gallas look like an amateur!) we can’t help but wonder why the Inter Milan stopper has gone to such lengths!

Fernando Torres – Spain – Nike T90 Laser Elite

As you can just about make out on the above picture – currently mis-firing Torres has the standard T90 Laser III heel counter on his Elites.

Nike dropped the standard heel counter from the Elites to save weight, Torres obviously prefers the added security and stability when shooting.

Torres is big lover of football boots and is notoriously picky – stating in his autobiography that he prefers white boots and won’t change out of a pair if he’s on a good run of scoring – which probably explains why he’s ditched the Elites altogether and gone back to the White K-Leather version of the standard model!

Kaka – Brazil – adidas adiPure III

With Lampard out of the picture, Kaka is adidas’ main adiPure man in South Africa. But what they probably don’t want to yell from the rooftops is that their golden boy prefers the sole plate from the adiNova II.

These rounded moulded studs are shorter than your average FG stud, and are laid out in classic 13-stud configuration – just like the legendary Copa Mundial. Kaka has been known to sneak in the odd training session in his beloved Copa’s every now and then, and this is probably a move by the midfield maestro to capture the magic of his favourite football boots.

Keisuke Honda – Japan – Mizuno Wave Ignitus

Despite being one of the athletes closely involved in the development of the Wave Ignitus, Keisuke Honda still clearly had some tweaks that he wanted making to his personal stock.

Looking firstly at the heel counter, you’ll notice that it’s yellow and not black/grey. What we can speculate is that Honda prefers a solid plastic heel counter, as opposed to the triple-density Tepex that Mizuno use on the standard Wave Ignitus.

Then you’ll see that Honda, like Kaka, prefers a more rounded stud on his boots – in this case it’s the soleplate from the Morelia – which you can recognise from the slight slant on the studs.

Xavi – Spain – Adidas Predator_X

Probably the most interesting of our spots is Spain’s Xavi in some very odd Predator_X‘s. You’ll notice that on the instep that Xavi’s Preds have no rubber swerve zone – so barring some sort of Green Lantern-like aversion to the colour yellow we can only guess that the deadly Spain midfielder just doesn’t like having it there!

We did see Xavi playing in the adiPure III in pre-season, so perhaps he likes an all-leather upper on his boots, but prefers the more side-offset lacing, PowerSpine and tighter fit of the Predator_X?

Jay DeMerit – USA – Puma PowerCat 1.10

More amusing than performance enhancing, we couldn’t help but notice that United States man DeMerit laces up his Puma PowerCat 1.10‘s with Nike (RED) laces. Obviously taking queues from his mostly-Nike USMNT pals, he’s backing the (RED) cause too.

And good on him for promoting and supporting the fight against AIDS! But, Jay – we’ve got to ask: Do Puma know?!

That’s all we’ve got! We’re done! But we want to hear from you and your best spots, and we’ll feature the most weird and wonderful in another article next week!