The footballing world is mourning the passing of England’s World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks, who died at the age of 81 on Monday night. Banks spent the majority of his professional career with Leicester City and Stoke City, but it’s his 73 international appearances and heroics at both the ’66 and ’70 World Cups that cemented his global legacy.
Challenging for the lead in the Premier League and home to the best defense in the top flight so far this season, Liverpool fans are once again dreaming of lifting the league trophy. The last Liverpool title in 1989-90 ended two decades of dominance over the English league by Liverpool.
In the nearly 30 years since, the Merseyside club has finished second four times and as low as eighth three times. Now four years into the Jurgen Klopp project, and on the back of the owners funneling in record sums into the team, Liverpool is poised to challenge once again.
When the adidas Copa 19+ dropped back in November, it was a game changer. The world’s first-ever laceless leather boot revolutionized one of the most iconic cleats of all time, while the traditional aesthetic of the Copa Mundial boot was given a major facelift.
The Nike Total 90 brand was introduced in 2000 and effectively ended in 2013 with the launch of the Hypervenom, but the legacy of the boot was secure with the introduction of the Total 90 Laser range in 2007.
The Total 90 Laser I was synonymous with a 21-year-old Wayne Rooney — the Manchester United forward was in the midst of winning his first English Premier League title while scoring a then career best total of 23 goals in 55 appearances.
Five years ago, Real Sociedad was playing in the Champions League after a campaign in which the club scored 70 goals — the most in LaLiga apart from Barcelona and Real Madrid. Instrumental to Sociedad’s success was a 22-year-old forward by the name of Antoine Griezmann and his strike partner, the 24-year-old Mexican Carlos Vela.