Nike Mercurial Miracle review

As a goalkeeper, I’m not one for buying fancy footwear that costs a fortune. The most I have ever spent on a pair of football boots is £20! The way I see it, I frankly don’t need them. I don’t need to worry about super duper lightweight technology developed in space by Russian monkeys, or the latest design that makes the ball curl 360 degrees like a boomerang back to your feet before you stick it through the defender’s legs. I need boots that will protect my feet and let me kick the ball and that’s it. I mean, look at my current pair:

Laugh at my table and we'll have words. Cost – £10 in the JJB Sports sale.

That’s about as fancy as I get with my boots. None of your bright colours for me, thank you very much! Black and black only, no need for a fancy pants goalie!

However, I was set a challenge in order to try and change my mind. Simply put, review these football boots and see if it improved my game. I’m always game for a challenge, so I accepted.

First things first. They’re very bright! If the floodlights were to fail, you wouldn’t miss these boots. Turning up for training and putting them on was met with howls of laughter to begin with, after all in my local leagues, a goalie wearing something like these is looked at with suspicion before your toes get stamped on at every single corner.

I didn't need the light on for this picture.

Nike promote these boots as being made for speed, and it’s easy to see why as soon as you slip them on. They are by far the lightest pair of boots I have ever worn. Taking that into account, I didn’t expect the comfort level to be high. Truth be told, I expected the boots to be crippling with a lack of comfort as a downside to the weight of them.

After 10 minutes I barely noticed I had football boots on, it actually felt like I was running in a pair of slippers. The Mercurials are extremely comfortable to run in and due to the lightness, I noticed I could move about the goalmouth and my penalty box with more ease than usual, even after the Scottish winter taking it’s effect and being covered in mud after a while. Usually the boots being covered in mud weighs them down and hurts my kicking skills and mobility, so this certainly was an improvement. I found myself getting to through balls a little quicker and coming out to catch the ball with more confidence than usual.

Ok, so they helped me move around a lot better. What about kicking the ball?

Well, my kicking skills are horrible, even without taking weather into consideration. My goal kicks barely make it past the halfway line and punting the ball isn’t much better. With the Mercurials, I did notice a slight difference in distance and power. I put this down to the lightness and design of the boot again. Whether this was down to the extra confidence levels or not, I’m not sure. I can say without doubt after warming up in them and noticing the difference in my movement, I certainly had better kicking power as well.

Right, so my kicking was better and I could move around the box with ease. I was turning into the perfect goalkeeper(I’m a fantastic shot stopper anyway, and modest with it). What about the third thing a goalkeeper requires from his footwear? Protection.

This time, the weight that has proved to be a benefit was a bit of a downfall. Saving the ball with my feet will occasionally hurt, depending on where the ball hits me or the speed of the shot. I never noticed any difference in that respect, which is impressive considering the lightness.

However, playing against opponents in these colourful numbers led to a bit more pain than usual. At corners especially, at Sunday league level, the goalkeeper is targeted a lot and gets kicked around the ankles a fair bit. At least in Scotland anyway! When a 16 stone bruiser likes to stand on my feet, I can normally take it. After all, it’s part of the game.

The Mercurials are not built to protect you for that! By God it hurt! With them seemingly a bit lower down my ankle than usual as well, being clattered in a 50/50 ball could be a sore one. This should not really count against them however, as most football boots generally aren’t designed to take into consideration a fat bloke might go through you like a ton of bricks!

So have I been converted?

Well, yes! Although the football boots are designed for speed and are advertised as such, I can see the benefit to a goalkeeper. At the usual retail price of £90, I think they’re well worth it. My last boots were £10, and although these Nike Mercurials Miracles haven’t made me nine times a better player, they really do seem to have helped my game. Some would say it’s a Miracle!

Sorry.

I would recommend them to both outfielders and goalkeepers alike, as without doubt they seem to be able to improve your game slightly. I wouldn’t expect to reach the World Cup any time soon though.

Now, can I get them in black?