20 years ago, Ronaldo “O Fenômeno” was on top of the footballing world having dominated Europe with both Barcelona and Inter Milan before scoring four goals and adding three assists to help Brazil to the final of the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Every playground footballer wanted to be Ronaldo, and purchasing the Nike Mercurial Superfly II boots was really as close as you could get to replicating a single part of his game.
2018 will mark 20 years of partnership between FC Barcelona and kit manufacturer Nike, and if the latest leaks are to be believed, the sportswear giants will be providing the Blaugrana a classic look to mark the anniversary.
The 2018-19 season will see main shirt sponsor Rakuten return for the second consecutive season after signing a $200 million deal back in November of 2016.
So remember how in 2016 Nike rolled out all their international kits with the Vapor template? You might not because it was a complete non-event. The USA looked like Portugal looked like England looked like PSG. The kits were “modern” in design, which is PR speak for indistinguishable, homogeneous, money-grubbing attire.
Well, here comes the 2018 World Cup, the perfect time to check all those boxes again. But instead of the Vapor template, we now get the Aeroswift template (the collar is different!). Just take my $120 now.
Here’s Portugal…