I AM… A WINGER

In part three of the “I am” series, we take a look at wingers.

Wingers are there to give a team width, attacking edge and a bit of flair. Most often they are fast, tricky and good crossers of the ball.
Ronaldo, Lennon and Ribery spring to mind.

If we take a look at Manchester United, we notice that all of their wingers wear different boots. We have Nani in Nike Vapours, Valencia in Adidas Predators and Park can be seen in Nike Tiempo Legends.

For the most part wingers wear speed boots. Again, Ronaldo, Lennon, Ribery and Nani are good examples – they all wear Nike Vapours. Then you have the likes of Ashley Young and Arjen Robben who wear the new Adidas F50i’s.

Interestingly, one of the greatest wingers of all time: David Beckham, does not wear speed boots. Beckham is the face of Adidas Predators and has pretty much been wearing them since he began. The new United right winger, Antonio Valencia also sports these power boots.

You can find the likes of Bastian Schweinsteiger, the German winger wearing Adidas AdiPure – a touch boot. Park Ji Sung and Joe Cole also wear Nike’s touch boot – the Tiempo Legends. Another Chelsea boy, Florent Malouda has recently opted to wear the new Nike CTR360 boot – which is an interesting choice.

All in all, it again appears that there is no rule. Two pairs of boots that don’t seem to be worn at all however are Puma’s V-Konstrukt and Nike’s T90 Laser, both of which are power boots. Most wingers, it seems will go for speed or touch.

Another two pairs which haven’t been mentioned (mainly due to the lack of players who wear them) are Reebok and Puma’s version of the speed boot: The Instante Pro and V1.10 respectively. Ryan Giggs, another wing legend, is using his Reeboks to great effect and playing some of the best football of his life. One of Puma’s most recognizable wingers is David Bentley but he can’t seem to get off the bench.

My advice: If you are a fast, tricky winger – a Lennon type – your best bet is a speed boot. If you tend more towards beating one and then whipping in a cross, a Beckham style Predator boot is a good bet.