Sergio Ramos terminated his contract with Nike after 10 years with the company, but he cannot wear another brand of football boots until the deal officially expires in February.
The Real Madrid defender is taking unorthodox measures to avoid displaying the logo of the American sportswear manufacturers and appeared to have spray-painted his Nike boots in a recent game.
Here’s the Spanish defender in action at the end of August against Celta de Vigo:
And here’s a closer look at Ramos’ boots, which have been noticeably altered.
Ramos is in talks with adidas, Puma, Joma, New Balance and Under Armour, according to Marca, but will continue to wear ‘unbranded’ boots until early next year.
The publication compares his situation to that of Fernando Torres, who was one of the faces of Nike before ultimately switching allegiances to adidas earlier this decade.
Ramos has since ditched the spray-paint, and wore all-black boots for Spain’s 2-0 over Belgium two weeks ago.
Any return to black boots should be welcomed, unless of course a player chooses to wear Andrea Pirlo’s wine-inspired boots.
Though given that those are Nike-made too, we somehow doubt Ramos will be the one to go down that particular route.
Mmmm, I'm getting laces… I'm getting leather… I'm getting heel #WineBoots https://t.co/cWSoTphbv9
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) September 12, 2016
Read more from SportsJOE:
