Soccer Cleats 101 Soccer Cleats News and Reviews
A little bit of bootspotting for a Monday afternoon. Checking out the Milan v Roma match and AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli took to the pitch wearing a boot entirely kitted out in newspaper headlines about himself. Super Mario, has been a long time Nike CTR 360 wearer (odd choice for a striker, but then it fits the bill with Balo), but that deal is close to a conclusion. I bet he is wondering “Why Always Me?”
In fact in recent weeks the striker has been covering the Nike logo’s on his CTR’s, which could be a sign of a move to a new brand. While I’m sure Nike would love to re-sign him, these boots look like nothing Nike offer at the current moment, and having just released the Hypervenom at the beginning of the current European campaign and the Tiempo Legend V last week, I seriously doubt they’re preparing to debut another boot silo mid-season.
So operating on the idea that Mario is leaving Nike. The two main suitors would be Adidas and Puma. Now Adidas have been busy recently releasing the Samba collection, featuring the entirely redesigned F50 that Bryan has just finished reviewing and the adiPure 11Pro was treated to an overhaul. So, they’d appear to be unlikely to be testing out a new silo at this moment in time.
Which brings us to ‘The Cat’, they’ve been quiet of late with new releases, and having looked at the pictures above I can only say that the heel of the boots Balotelli is wearing were tailor made to feature a big cat on them. Rumour has also been doing the rounds that Puma have been developing a Power/Control boot to replace the PowerCat, which will be known as the evoPOWER. So I’m going to go out on a limb and say the deal has been done, and what you’re looking at is the new face of the upcoming Puma evoPOWER range, Mario Balotelli! After all, Puma do have a habit of releasing limited edition camouflage style boots before the real one hits market.
So what say you, SC101 readers? What do you think Mario Balotelli is wearing, or who do you think he should sign with? Leave a comment and let your opinion be heard.
