Mesut Özil's match worn Adidas Predator 19+

Player name: Mesut Özil

Country: Germany

Clubs: Schalke 04, Werder Bremen, Real Madrid, Arsenal

DOB: 15/10/1988

Position: Attacking midfielder/winger

Height: 6 ft 0 in

Mesut Özil is a German professional footballer who plays for Premier League club Arsenal as an attacking midfielder, but can also be deployed as a winger. He is renowned for his technical skills and creativity; due to his agility, finesse and versatility as an attacking midfielder.

Özil began his senior career as a member of his hometown club Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga, departing two seasons later to join Werder Bremen for €5 million. He garnered break-out attention in the 2009-10 season, being ranked first in assists in major European and domestic competitions, with 25 which garnered him a €15 million transfer to La Liga giants Real Madrid. At the club, Özil won the Copa del Rey in his first season, before registering a league high 17 assists in a league winning season. Following a second-place La Liga finish to rivals Barcelona in the 2012–13 season, Özil relocated to England to join Premier League side Arsenal in a then club-record deal worth £42.5 million (€50 million), making him the most expensive German player of all time. During his first season, Özil helped end Arsenal's nine-year trophy drought, winning the FA Cup in 2014. He later became victorious in two more FA Cup campaigns. Özil would also record the second most assists (19) in a Premier League season in 2015–16.

 Here ar BCBOOTSUK we have managed to acquire 4 pairs, yes, 4 pairs of his Adidas Predator 19+ boots! The colourways include the "Encryption Pack", the "Exhibit Pack",  and 2 pairs from the "Hard Wired" pack. These pairs were custom made for Mesut to wear at the back end of the 2018-19 season, through to around December time of the 2019-20 season. 

Each pair feature some differences to the retail versions of the Adidas Predator 19+, including some unique personalisation just for him. All pairs you see here are in the SG-Pro variation soleplate, Mesut is known to toy between FG and SG configurations, whereas a lot of other elite pros tend to pick one and stick with it - take Messi for example.

Mesut can be seen above in a training session with Arsenal holding his "Hard Wired" Predator 19+'s.

A nice detail in which Adidas have made for Özil is creating his very own customised logo. If we look closely, we can see his initials and his shirt number 10 within it. Adidas have created custom logos like this for only a selected few of their elite players, such as Messi, Bale, and James Rodriguez.

Each pair we have feature sightly different personalisation from pair to pair. Some feature the name of his niece "Mira", whilst others feature the name of his partner "Amine" with the names of his dogs "Pablito" and "Balbao". An ever present part of his personalisation however is his custom logo.

Did you know, Özil's "M" celebration which is featured in EA Sports' FIFA , is a tribute to his niece Mira.

Each pair have been hand made to Mesut's exact specifications in Adidas' "Athlete Services" factory, located at their headquarters in Herzogenaurach in Germany. 

Noticeably, the size tag of the pair from the camo style "Encryption Pack" indicates that the right boot is slightly larger than the left, with it being a UK9 compared to the UK8.5 of the left boot. This may suggest that Mesut was recovering from an injury to his right foot during the period he had that pair - there are also other indications of this which you will see further down.

The personalisation features of the "Encryption Pack" pair are his custom logo with his partners' name "Amine" to the outer part, with the names of his dogs "Balbao" and "Pablito" on the insteps.

Özil has modified the heels of this pair with a soft padded leather instead of opting for the standard hard plastic heel which are on his "Hard Wired" and "Exhibit Pack" pairs.

Here is a close up of how the modified heel looks next to the standard version. The leather version has 3 embossed stripes to try and emulate the fins we see on the plastic version.

The upper of the right boot is considerably softer than the upper of the left boot, especially in the forefoot - another indication that this pair were made compensating for an injury. In the close up above we can see the fins of the right boot are virtually flat in comparison to the left.

The bottom of the insole from the right boot has additional thick circular parts, which again suggests Mesut had some sort of injury to his right foot at the time.

 Above: Özil wearing the "Encryption Pack" during the 2019-20 season for Arsenal in training and the Carabao Cup.

 

Özil wore the "Hard Wired" pack Adidas Predator 19+ throughout pre season and at the beginning of the 2019-20 season for Arsenal. We have 2 pairs of his from this packof his, 1 match worn and 1 match issued/prepared. Both feature the stunning chrome blue SG-Pro soleplate and his custom logo to the outer side of each boot.

The pair in which he wore feature his niece's name "Mira" to the instep, whilst the unused pair have his partners name "Amine" added to the outer part with "Mira" and "Pablito" to the insteps.

Known as the "assist king" to many, Mesut has a total of 40 assists and 23 goals in 92 appearances for Germany, and those are just his international stats...

 

Özil has won some of the biggest trophies in world football, including the FIFA World Cup in 2014, as well as the UEFA European Championships in 2012 -  a tournament at which he was named in the "team of the tournament". He has also won the FA Cup 3 time. In his time at Spanish giants Real Madrid he won La Liga, the Supercopa de Espana, and Copa Del Rey

Mesut was named "German player of the year" in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016.

Özil above wearing the "Hard Wired" pack in pre season and the Carabao Cup.

Throughout his career he has been widely regarded as one of the greatest creative attacking players of his generation in world football. He has a total - so far - of 587 appearances scoring 104 goals and assisting 215 for club and country.

 

Mesut wore the "Exhibit Pack" Adidas Predator 19+ at the back end of the 2018-19 season with Arsenal. During this season he made a total of 35 appearences, scoring 6 goals and making 3 assists - a season hindered by poor team performances managerial decisions.

The pair of Mesut's "Exhibit Pack" which we have received are the SG-Pro variation, which were custom made to his exact specs to wear in matches, however he opted for the FG soleplate variation at the time - so this pair remained unused.

This pair feature no major modifications barring the custom shape, logo and personalisation. With them being made in Germany, the quality of the materials and the overall build quality are much higher than that of the retail version Predator 19+.

Getting hold of boots from one of the best creative players of the last decade isn't easy, but here we have managed to acquire 4 stunning pairs!