Mad Mario Makes The Headlines With Disguised Boot Design - Football News

The story surrounding the future of Mario Balotelli's boot sponsorship took an exciting turn last night with the AC Milan striker taking to the San Siro pitch modelling a pair of disguised boots plastered with some of the Italian's most notorious and recognized headlines made throughout his wild career.

He's been football's hottest out-of-contract property for some time now, having worn blacked-out Nike CTR360 boots in recent weeks. So who's landed the forward's signature? It seems certain that Nike have lost their man, leaving adidas and PUMA to battle it out for the mad Italian. So who's won? Looking at the boots, our guess is with the latter.

The clever stunt used to disguise Balotelli's fancy footwear is reminiscent of PUMA's previous ploys used to seed new boots into the market. The evoSPEED 'Razzle Dazzle' and evoSPEED CAMO 1.2 are both recent examples of PUMA's imaginative way of thinking. With a new PUMA boot silo on the horizon, has the German brand added another stellar name to their line-up? PUMA are not making any comment at this point.





The signing of Balotelli would be another statement signing by PUMA, who would have beaten competition from adidas and Nike. The Italian international will join the PUMA set-up alongside the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Marco Reus, Yaya Toure, Sergio Aguero, Olivier Giroud and Radamel Falcao. 

Balotelli revealed his unique boots in Milan's 2-2 draw with Roma on Monday. The unbranded boots had been disguised with newspaper clippings from some of Mario's most memorable moments. Headlines taken from his two-goal performance against Germany in the Euro 2012 semi-finals and his unforgettable "Why Always Me" shirt celebration for Manchester City show of his whirlwind career.



Stay tuned over the coming weeks as this story continues to develop. What do you think of Balotelli's headline boots and his potential deal with PUMA? Join the conversation online, on Twitter and on Facebook.