{"id":46235,"date":"2026-06-30T20:55:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/46235\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T20:55:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:55:21","slug":"will-nike-or-adidas-soccer-cleats-reign-supreme-in-world-cup-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/46235\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Nike or Adidas Soccer Cleats Reign Supreme in World Cup 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWith World Cup<\/a> fever sweeping North America, which boots actually put the ball in the net at the highest level in past international tournaments?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe winner is Nike<\/a> Inc. for cleats<\/a> that produced the most goals on the international stage at four key soccer<\/a> tournaments. But will Nike<\/a> be able to do a repeat in this year\u2019s World Cup<\/a>? That won\u2019t be known until the games are over. Nike is sponsoring 12 teams, while its closest competitor Adidas<\/a> is sponsoring 14, according to HSBC analyst Akshay Gupta. There\u2019s a good chance that Adidas<\/a> could at the very least close the gap in the brand battle.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a study from soccer<\/a>.com, 586 goals scored at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, 2023 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup, UEFA Euro 2024 and Copa Am\u00e9rica 2024 were analyzed. Together, Nike and Adidas accounted for more than 85 percent of the scoring across the four tournaments.<\/p>\n

\n\tNike alone accounted for 64.7 percent, or 297 goals, more than tripling Adidas in second position at 20.9 percent, or 96 goals. The data also showed that the Nike Phantom family produced a tournament-leading 156 goals. And every title-winning goal came from a player wearing a control or heritage boot, not a speed cleat, the study found. In addition, control cleats<\/a> produced 48.1 percent of all goals, just edging ahead of speed boots at 47.1 percent.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn third place was Puma at 8.3 percent, or 38 goals, followed by Mizuno at 4.4 percent, or 20 goals, New Balance at 1.5 percent, or 7 goals, and Under Armour at 0.2 percent, or 1 goal.<\/p>\n

\n\tNike\u2019s lead also is helped by its roster as the brand signs many of the biggest scorers in the game, which include Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, Robert Lewandowski, Cristiano Ronaldo, Vin\u00edcius Junior, Marcus Rashford and Aitana Bonmati. Adidas has in its roster Lionel Messi<\/a>, Lamine Yamal, Jude Bellingham, and Florian Wirtz, among others. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe knockout rounds also saw Nike in the lead, with knockout goals totaling 126, giving it a 64.3 share. Adidas was second with 49 and a 25 percent share.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong the top two types of cleats worn, control boots, such as the Nike Phantom GX and the Adidas Predator, took the lead at 221 goals, or a 48.1 percent share. Speed boots such as the Nike Mercurial<\/a> and Adidas X or Adidas F50, produced 216 goals, or a 47.1 percent share. <\/p>\n

\n\tControl boots are built for touch on the ball and clean finishing. Speed boots are built for top-end pace and quick takeoffs. The soccer.com study found that most goals come from inside the box, where ball control and timing matter more than top sprint speed. That helps boots keep pace with speed boots, even though speed marketing is louder.<\/p>\n

\n\tHeritage or comfort boots are made from soft leather that molds to one\u2019s feet for a closer feel on the ball. Examples include the Nike Tiemp Legend, Adidas Copa Mundial and Mizuno Morelia. And interestingly, every goal that clinched a trophy at one of the four key soccer tournaments came in a control or heritage boot. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe title-clinching scorer in the 2022 FIFA World Cup was Gonzalo Montiel in a shootout, wearing the Adidas Predator Accuracy, a control boot. At the UEFA Euro 2024, Mikel Oyarzabal wore the Adidas Copa Pure 2 Elite, a heritage boot. Copa Am\u00e9rica 2024 title-clinching scorer was Lautaro Martinez, wearing the Nike Phantom GX II Elite, a control boot. And the 2023 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup saw Olga Carmona wearing the Nike Phantom GX Elite, a control boot.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe top five cleat models behind the most goals are: Nike Phantom GX\/GT, a control boot, at 156 goals or a 34.0 percent share; Nike Mercurial: Vapor + Superfly, a speed boot, at 136 goals or a 29.6 percent share; Adidas X: Speedportal + Crazyfast, a speed boot, at 43 goals or 9.4 percent share; Adidas Predator, a control boot, at 30 goals or a 6.5 percent share, and Puma Ultra, a speed boot, at 21 goals or a 4.6 percent share. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With World Cup fever sweeping North America, which boots actually put the ball in the net at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21254],"tags":[21290,39125,25920,710,284],"class_list":["post-46235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adidas","tag-adidas","tag-cleats","tag-nike","tag-soccer","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}