“Build from the back”, that’s what most horribly clich'©d managers would insist when start a team from fresh – and here at Footy-Boots.com we’re heeding that advice!
In our attempts to break down the World’s football boots by their popularity at this year’s World Cup, we’re going to be dissecting players by position – to see where certain football boots are at their most popular on the pitch.
Starting things off – we’re looking at Goalkeepers!
Whilst the gloves are the real show-piece for most stoppers, we reckon you can tell a lot about a keeper from their boots!
Odds ‘n’ Ends
The following boots are all stuck on one endorsee each – which is a shame as there’s some really great picks, not to mention some classics! So here’s some of our favourite one-pair-wonders!
Under Armour – Dominate Pro – Oscar Perez – Mexico
Pirma – Monaco III – Luis Ernesto Michel – Mexico
Reebok – Instante Pro II – Iker Casillas – Spain
Umbro – SX Valor – David James – England
adidas – F50i – Johnny Leoni – Switzerland
Joma – Total Fit – Pepe Reina – Spain
Beto – Portugal, Michael Vorm – Holland
Uhlsport being one of the giants of the goalkeeping glove market, it should be little surprise that the brand would find itself with some representation in the boot department too!
adidas Predator Powerswerve – 2 wearers
Donis Escober – Honduras, Kostas Chalkias – Greece
You can’t keep a good man down! The Predator Powerswerves might be fading from sight on pitches, but there are players out there determined to wear them.
In fact some keepers (such as Huerelho Gomes) only just switched out of the PowerSwerves weeks before the tournament – proving their enduring popularity!
Puma v1.08 – 2 wearers
Dele Aiyenugba – Nigeria,' – Greece
Another speed boot creeps onto the feet of keepers from different corners of the world!
Whilst the light weight construction must help when charging down players at speed, we think the real reason these ‘keepers wear the v1.08 football boots is so they can smash goal kicks up this pitch with that huge kicking area!
adidas F50 adiZero – 3 wearers
Stephan Andersson – Denmark, Diego Pozo – Argentina, Justo Villar – Paraguay
An unusual choice for a goalkeeper’s boot – the adidas f50 adiZero could well become popular for veterans of the old onion bag in coming months.
The comfortable fit should mean those action-less games become a bit less of an endurance exercise, and the ultra-light construction should help the more acrobatic keepers in the world pull off those ‘for-the-camera’ saves!
adidas adiPure III – 3 wearers
Robert Green – England, Diego Barreto – Paraguay, Luis MarÄ‚n – Chile
A very shocking showing from the classy adidas boots, we certainly expected a bigger number of keepers to opt for the adiPure III.
Nike Mercurial Vapor Superfly II – 3 wearers
Samir HandanoviÄ‚€ž'Ť – Slovenia, Moeneeb Josephs – South Africa, Itumeleng Khune – South Africa
Always an odd choice for keepers, the Superfly II has nonetheless snuck onto the feet of a few keepers this year. Again, we can see the light weight being of an advantage, but personally we’d trade that for more protection!
Nike CTR360 Maestri – 3 wearers
Gomes – Brazil, Sergio Ramero – Argentina, Jesper Christiansen – Denmark
Another low number of wearers at the World Cup form this hugely popular boot.
The CTR360 has been steadily climbing in popularity with goalkeepers since it’s launch last season – the boots emphasis on control will surely be welcomed by keepers who are called upon to deal with the occasional tricky back-pass.
Lotto FuerzaPura – 5 wearers
Jasmin HandanoviÄ‚€ž'Ť – Slovenia, Federico Marchetti – Italy, Doni – Brazil
A boot that we’ve not been able to cover as much as we’d like here on Footy-Boots.com (Hint, hint Lotto!) The FuerzaPura translates from Italian as ‘Pure Power’ so we can see why plenty of keepers would want them on their feet!
Coming in a choice of Leather or Synthetic uppers also means that keepers can pick and choose their boots depending on conditions.
Adidas Copa Mundial – 6 Wearers
Ricardo Canales – Honduras, Hans-JÄ‚¶rg Butt – Germany, LounÄ‚¨s Gaouaoui – Algeria
Beating out some of the most technologically advanced football boots on the market, it’s great to see the classic Copa’s still being represented at the highest possible level of competition.
Not just that, these football boots are worn by European, South American and African goalkeepers – demonstrating perfectly the universal appeal of these gorgeously-crafted classics.
Puma PowerCat 1.10 – 9 Wearers
Seigo Narazaki – Japan, Gianluigi Buffon – Italy, Eduardo – Portugal
Despite being designed for powerful strikers and attackers, the Puma PowerCat 1.10 has more fans between the sticks than in any other position!
And why not? The 3D PowerLast strikezone must be a joy to ping goal-kicks off of!
Nike T90 Laser III – 10 Wearers
Mark Paston – New Zealand, Jung Sung-Ryong – Korea Republic, Richard Kingson – Ghana
Despite not having any massive goalkeeping names attached to them, the T90 Laser III’s are one of the most popular boots out there for stoppers.
Not being one of the lightest boots on the market, we can only guess that the memory-foam enhanced fit and large striking areas are the biggest selling points.
Adidas Predator_X – 14 Wearers
Vincent Enyeama – Nigeria, Maarten Stekelenburg – Holland, Manuel Neuer – Germany
The Predator series has always been a popular choice for goalkeepers; the accuracy-enhancing swerve zones have often helped the world’s finest goalies keep errors in their kicking technique to a minimum.
Nike Tiempo Legend III – 16 Wearers
VÄ‚ctor Vald'©s – Spain, Hugo Lloris – France, Vladimir StojkoviÄ‚€žË‡ – Serbia
Coming up top is the classic Nike Tiempo Legend line!
First! Are any players of the World Cup wearing the Mizuno Wave Ghost?
How about Julio Cesar’s boot? He has worn Preds in the past, but his WC boots are difficult to determine…anyone??
Hi Andy!
We had a look at Julio Cesar’s boots in our Custom Boots of the World Cup:
http://www.footy-boots.com/custom-boots-of-the-world-cup/
And we didn’t want to give him too much coverage!
To answer your question, though, we think he wear Mizuno Morelia’s, take a look at the Custom boots article to see if you agree with us!
@dean:
Jokic of Slovenia wears the Ghost….correct me if i’m wrong.
That’s what we’ve got him pegged as – the Wave Ghost Striker…we think!
Thanks Kyle, Do you know if Cesar has worn Mizunos in the past?
Thanks Kyle, The tongue of Cesar’s blackout boots do not look like the large tongue on the Morelia. I can’t really see a tongue on his boots, but then my son cut off the large tongue of his old Preds and is perfectly happy with them.
Jokic is wearing the Ghost Striker, but havent seen anyone wearing the Wave Ghost MD. Would have been interesting as the silver / orange colourway is almost exact to the Nike Elite’s, but was released before the Elite’s.
Argentina’s goalkeeper is called Sergio Romero, not Ramero.
Interesting, he chose to wear CTR360 while he had wored Superfly I before,
Sergio is still using the mercurial but is just that the ctr360 is his second choice