PUMA Mens King Cup FG Adults Football Boots Lace Up

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The 1986 World Cup was, arguably, the most memorable of all time. Argentina won it and Maradona was player of the tournament. He bagged five goals, two of which came against England. You remember them. The ‘Hand of God’ and that mazy run from the halfway line. Outrageous. The greatest World Cup goal of all time. No questions. He single-handedly – no pun intended – tore England apart whilst wearing the legendary Puma King. It was another massive success for the German sports brand. Probably their biggest yet. On the surface, such blatant pigeonholing might seem unfair. But the PUMA King’s contemporary synonymity with a no-thrills approach to the beautiful game signifies a slow shift in the culture of football. And, if at one time good enough for World Cup winners and God-like figures, why have the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi then not opted to continue the PUMA King’s rich football heritage? One such way has been the Puma King Platinum, which shares the “King” moniker but seems more like an experiment to gauge customers’ sentiments about a thin, speedy leather boot. As of writing, Puma has also launched a new version of the Puma King Platinum, the Platinum 21, which positions it more as a simple leather boot for comfort. We’ve yet to review the boot nor ascertain whether this is another experiment or a fully dedicated new line in the Puma lineup. A silent passing of the boot baton that has manifested at all levels — from the elite echelons of the Premier League right down to the grassroots game and the aforementioned Sunday morning battles in the parks and hardly-fit-for-cattle fields of Blighty.

Of the ubiquitous ingredients constituting any quintessential Sunday morning scrap, there is one brand of football boot that, for many, encapsulates the endearing madness better than any other: the PUMA King. Ahead of the King’s launch in 1968 Puma had already enjoyed great success with the Super Atom boot launched some 16 years prior. The boot’s revolutionary design was the first to feature screw-in studs. It was the start of a long-lasting relationship between Puma and football, and that relationship was taken to new heights with the KING. Pele and the KING (1970)This was supposed to challenge the likes of the popular Nike Premier 2.0, a budget leather boot inspired by a prestigious older model. The “heritage” line, as some would call it. I’m surprised they didn’t reuse the soleplate from previous Puma Future or Puma One models which, while not spectacular, did a solid job in providing manoeuvrability and a natural, comfortable flex. A King that needs to change with the times

Similarly, a 2019 article in the Evening Standard headlined ‘Best football boots: Nike, Adidas and top UK brands for men’ mused at length over a number of boots by the titular big-hitters, and also those by Umbro and relative new boys on the soccer scene New Balance. Nowhere did it even mention PUMA. Step onto the field with the confidence of a true leader. Conquer every match, control every play, and leave your mark with the PUMA King Football Boots. Your reign starts here, now, and on every ground you play.But where the likes of the Adidas Predator and the Nike Mercurial Vapor have flourished, the PUMA King has failed to follow suit. In December of 2019, a listicle published by popular online football publication SoccerBible ranked what were they believed to be the greatest 30 boots of the last decade. Naturally, subjectivity plays its part, but there was a notable omission: despite new models, the famed PUMA King failed to make the cut. Maybe its ostensible ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ model has grown somewhat stale in a market much more crowded than it ever was in the 1970s and ’80s. Both are complex questions, of course, with answers that cannot so readily be nailed down. Economics, politics, marketing and, of course, the corporate behemoths that have come to govern and define the modern game all now play a fundamental role in determining what a player decides to wear on his or her feet.

While Bayern agreed to Matthaeus’ footwear demands, his national team – also sponsored by Adidas – were less accommodating. Numerous times the midfielder was handed fines for refusing to wear the three stripes. But he didn’t care. He was Puma through and through, and his passion for the brand started at an early age. Growing up in Herzogenaurach, his father worked at Puma’s original headquarters as a facility manager, so when Lothar was deciding what boots to wear, it was a no brainer. In today’s climate of knit and synthetics, Puma is figuring out the best way to pay tribute to the name. Much like the boot itself, the wearer of a pair of PUMA Kings is unobtrusive, yet undeniably strong, sturdy, and invariably reliable. For astro turf surfaces, our King top TT boots are the options for you. With all of these classic features you'd expect from the King boot, but with a rubber outsole designed for superior traction on more slippery astro turf surfaces. For a classic look on astro-turf pitches, look no further than our King TT trainers. By the ’80s, the boot was having an equally profound impact off the pitch, too. Lothar Matthäus, the talismanic German midfielder with 150 caps to his name and whose father had worked at the nearby Puma factory when Lothar was a child, was initially hesitant to sign to Bayern Munich (whose technical supplier was Adidas) from Borussia Mönchengladbach if it meant he was no longer permitted to wear his beloved PUMA brand.Perhaps it comes down to an issue of quality, whereby PUMA Kings have simply failed to evolve as well as other brands. Or perhaps, with the rapid advances in technology, and the ever-expanding scope for meticulous designs and modern materials, it’s PUMA’s apparent reluctance to deviate too far from the classic King of yesteryear means that it simply isn’t that fashionable anymore. One need only watch Pelé and Brazil’s mesmeric World Cup triumph of 1970, or Asif Kapadia’s recent Diego Maradona documentary to be reminded, not merely of the undeniable genius possessed by both men on the pitch and the very different personal lives that distinguish them off it, but, more simply, of what tangibly links them: what they wore on their feet.