Fancy footwear in an array of dazzling colours has been the order of the day. What are the most popular choices? And how many players have dared to wear old-fashioned black?
It used to be that coloured boots were the sole preserve of one or two flashy, flair players per football team. They were the exceptions to the rule: the cocky prima donnas to their journeymen teammates.
Not any more. From Hackney Marshes to the Premier League, everyone now wants to be the star. What's amazing is how quickly we've grown accustomed to flash Harrys. Back in 1970, Hummel caused shockwaves by sending a few star players out in its white footwear; now white is conclusively the new black.
I know, because I've spent the past fortnight obsessively staring at footballers' feet and making notes. In this World Cup, it seems, we've finally reached saturation point: coloured boots have now become so devalued that Puma have gone one step further, releasing the evoPOWER Tricks Boot – with one shoe in pink and the other in blue. Even Mario Balotelli thought they were a bit much ("I have to be honest, the first time I saw the Tricks boots, I thought the Puma guy was mad," he admitted).
As the World Cup has played out, so the dazzling array of coloured footwear has become ever more bewildering. White has become the predominant colour. But that's just for kick-off.
True flair players have had to up the ante: for the knockout stages, Neymar has even awarded himself his own golden boot, courtesy of Nike. Messi has gone one step further by attempting to fit every single available colour on one boot with his personal Adidas Lionel Messi 2017World Cup Birthday Boot – worn for the match against Nigeria on 25 June (the day after his 27th birthday).
Isn't this all getting a bit much? Whatever happened to the no-nonsense, socks-around-the-ankles (as opposed to over the knees) approach? It's hard to imagine Terry Butcher turning out in one – any – of the new designs. It's time someone put their foot down.
I engaged in some unscientific research, tallying the most popular colourways for the starting XI of each nation as the tournament progressed. The results were even more stark than expected: of 352 players, only 12 wore black boots in contrast to 118 in white (or variations thereof), 96 in yellow and 64 in orange.
Surely it's time for someone to shake up the status quo? It would be about the cockiest thing a player could do – like a modern-day George Best, with his bare shins taunting the leg-breakers – to turn out in ordinary black boots and make the statement that they don't need fancy footwear to dazzle the opposition.
The black-booted dirty dozen of the World Cup is heavy on goalkeepers, including Sergio Romero (Argentina), Asmir Begovic (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Charles Itandje (Cameroon), Joe Hart (England), Alireza Haghighi (Iran) and Maya Yoshida (Japan). An honourable mention, though, goes to Colombian playmaker Juan Cuadrado, who stepped out in a pair of black boots (albeit with a yellow flash) for the Group C clash with Greece on 14 June.
Who's special now?
令人眼花缭乱的彩色战靴在当下大行其道。究竟哪一种才是球员们最热衷的颜色，又有多少球员敢穿上老款的黑色战靴呢？
据英国《卫报》7月1日报道，在过去彩色战靴是个别球风华丽，富有天赋的球员专利。作为球队的领跑者，他们是例外。
但现在，彩色战靴再也不是某个人的专利。无论是在哈克尼沼泽公园踢球的业余足球爱好者，还是英超联赛上的球星，没有人不渴望成为穿上彩色战靴的新星。最让人惊奇的是我们居然对闪闪发光的哈里斯战靴习以为常。回溯至1970年，Hummel（丹麦运动品牌）因为赞助给个别球员白色的战靴而引起哗然大波。但现在，白色最终重演了黑色的命运，成为球场战靴的大众色。
我知道这些是因为我在过去的两周中一直紧盯着球员的战靴并做了笔记。看起来在世界杯这个没有硝烟的战场上，我们对战靴颜色的设计已经达到了饱和：彩色战靴早已贬值，彪马甚至做出更跃进的设计，他们所发布的evoPOWER Tricks Boot ——红蓝鸳鸯配色战靴，甚至让巴神巴洛特利都觉得这双鞋太前卫了，他承认：“老实说，当我看到特别版鸳鸯鞋时，我以为彪马的小伙伴们都疯了。"
随着世界杯比赛的打响，鲜艳夺目的战靴变得更加让人迷惑。白色早已成为足球鞋的主导色，但其只用于开球。
球王们则对战靴提出更高的要求：在淘汰赛阶段，内尔马穿上了由耐克提供的专属土豪金战靴。梅西则更进一步，他在6月25日对阵尼日利亚的比赛中踏上了阿迪达斯为他打造的生日专属战靴，这双战靴试图做到在一支球鞋中融入每个颜色。
这些设计是不是太过前卫了呢？不管对这些实用的球鞋做出怎样的改变，都很难想象出特里·布切（曼联前后位，以凶狠果断著称）穿上任何一款新款战靴出场。这是坚持己见的时刻了。
我做了一些可能不太科学的调查，在352名球员中，只有12名穿了黑色战靴，与之相反。有118人穿上了白色战靴（或是以白色为主体的战靴），96人穿黄色战靴，64人穿橙色战靴。
登上世界杯黑色战靴十二黑名单的通常是守门员，包括阿根廷的塞尔希奥·罗梅罗，波黑的贝戈维奇，喀麦隆的 查理斯·伊坦积，英格兰的乔·哈特，伊朗的 Alireza Haghigh，及日本的吉田麻也。尽管如此，哥伦比亚的中场队员胡安·库亚德拉多也在6月14日对阵希腊的C组小组赛中踏上了一双黑色战靴（即使带有一道黄色闪电标志）登场。
这样看来，穿哪种颜色战靴的球员看起来更特殊呢?
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