Lionel Messi's Match Worn Adidas X Speedportal.1 Football Boots 2022/23 Season, 1st Pair Worn After 2022 World Cup

Here we present to you yet another museum level piece of match worn football memorabilia, this time, it is in the form of a very special pair of Adidas X Speedportal.1 which were match worn by the greatest player of all-time, Lionel Messi. This pair right here were the very first pair in which Leo wore after pioneering Argentina to winning the FIFA World Cup in December of 2022! This piece holds a greatly significant time in history, with them being the first pair Leo wore on the pitch as World Champion, but besides them being match worn by the GOAT, this pair also contain so many special details & customisations over the standard retail variant of the X Speedportal. In this blog we will be delving into all of those details, as well as taking a further in-depth look into the matches Leo wore this pair in, and the goals he scored in them.

Lets start with one of the more well known modifications that Messi has to his match boots, and has had, since 2018. This is known as the 'Burrito Tongue' and it's a fully custom design manufactured for Messi only - nothing like this is available to the general public. The standard retail specification of the Adidas X Speedportal features a one-piece upper construction, whereby the centre piece which sits under the lacing system is made from an elasticated knit, fusing together the lateral & medial sides of the upper material to create a one-piece upper. Messi however, just really does not like this design and hasn't since it was brought in with the Nemeziz model in 2018. A brand the size of Adidas simply cannot allow their most high profile sponsored athlete to be unhappy with their footwear when playing at the highest level of competition, so they go to extreme lengths in order to ensure that the player is fully comfortable with their supplied footwear. As we can see in the image above, Messi's version features a split upper design, with the knit material not only being separated from the medial side of the upper, but also a much longer piece of material, so that it wraps around the medial side of Messi's foot. 

This knitted piece of material, which is the black section on this colourway, is also very elasticated on the retail version in order for the user to have easy access when putting the boot on, but also for aided comfort. Messi's version has absolutely no stretch whatsoever in this piece of material which is not only due to it not being elasticised, but also because there is an additional layer of padding on the underside. Another interesting fact is that the Burrito Tongue itself is actually taken from the previous model in the X silo, the X Speedflow.1 - an example of which, from a pair of Messi's match worn X Speedflow.1 boots, can be seen above for comparison. On earlier models of the Speedportal, Messi did use a custom burrito version of the Speedportal design, however it would appear that he wasn't overlly happy with that, so Adidas reverted to using his custom Speedflow version and further modified his Speedportal's to incorporate this extra customisation.

If we take a closer look at this area of the boot from a birds eye view, we will notice that on the lateral side there is an extreme amount of additional stitching which is covered/protected by a heat applied wax strip over the top, and runs right the way along the edge of that custom X Speedflow.1 Burrito Tongue addition. On the medial side, there is also an additional piece of the black knit material which runs right the way down to the bottom of the lacing system, providing just a bit of extra protection. You may also notice that, from this angle, the upper material on Messi's custom version looks entirely different to what is seen on the retail version boot on the right hand side, and that is because, it is...

Following the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the upper material on Lionel Messi's X Speedportal.1 boots was a HUGE talking point within the football boot world, and one that never really got clarification on a definitive answer. The question everyone was asking was, is Messi using a custom natural leather upper on his boots? The answer, in short, is no! it was widely reported that Messi stopped using natural leather boots, after having worn them religiously from 2008 - 2013. It has been reported that Messi's wife, Antonella, has strong views against animal welfare, which is where many think Leo's decision to stop wearing leather boots came from. So, what we see here on Messi's custom X Speedportal is essentially a remastered versionn of the Hybrid Touch synthetic leather which would be found on the 2014 F50 Adizero, with a graphic print of what the 'Own Your Football' pack colourway visually looks like on the retail version, which does make it rather difficult to spot the custom upper material from a distance.

The custom upper on Messi's bespoke version of the Speedportal is beautifully soft and padded, and another cool detail to note is that, on the retail version of this model the upper incorporates a a raised diamond shape texturing on both the lateral and medial sides, but Leo's version does not have this. There is a slight attempt to add that texturing to the medial side of the upper, however, it is so feint and difficult to see that it is almost pointless in it being there, as it doesn't quite add the additional layer of camouflaging that Adidas, I'm sure, were hoping for. I think I can speak for all football boot fans when I say, we would all LOVE to see a 1:1 model of this released to the genral public, similar to the Kroos Adipure. Although, let's be honest, that remake was quite far from an actual 1:1 of the custom model that Kroos wore on the pitch, but let's stay on topic and not get into that!

Interestingly, and this is certainly a detail which will raise some eyebrows, there is actually a piece of natural leather on Messi's custom boots and it can be found at the heel area, as seen above. The thin black strip which bears the 'X' branding is actually genuine leather, which doesn't make much sense really, seeing as Adidas went to extreme lengths to create a remastered version of the Hybrid Touch upper for the upper on Messi's boot, why not made an additional piece for that section on the heel? We'd love to know the answer to that question, as it certainly is a fascinating detail on this pair!

The first of a long list of matches in which Messi wore this pair was on the 6th January 2023, when Leo's PSG came up against LB Châteauroux in the French Cup, coming away as 1-3 winners, progressing to the next round. This was the first time Leo was seen on the pitch after being crowned World Champion on that historic night at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar, on the 18th December 2022, when he spearheaded the Argentina national team to winning the World Cup. This pair here hold a huge significance due to that special detail of them being the very first pair he wore on the pitch as World Champion!

Whilst we're on the topic of the heel area, lets go into further detail on this section of the boots as, again, they are heavily customised for Leo! The interior of the retail version X Speedportal.1 featured two pillow style cushion pods inside the heel area, and the liner of which met the heel cup but did not wrap over it. On Messi's version, as we can see above, as a crazy amount of extra padding with a softer fabric material for the liner. This custom liner wraps over the edge of the heel cup, attaching to the exterior of the upper material, providing not only a bit of additional comfort, but also helping to prevent blisters. Also, the liner on the interior is attached by heat applied tape, instead of stitching - just another cool detail. That is actually something we see with many match worn & issued boots top pro's wearing Adidas, where their custom heel liners are not stitched, perhaps something Adidas will introduce on the retail models at some point? It clearly works for the pros!

The additional padding actually continues throughout the rest of the interior on Leo's boots where, from the midfot forwards, there is a soft pink fabric liner holding in a nice amount of additional cushioning. The retail specification has no padding inside this area whatsoever, with the upper being crafted from a thin plastic construction. Perhaps these cool details & features will only ever be for the GOAT, eh?

Messi's usual personalisation details of his iconic number '10' can be seen in the above picture on the lateral side of the heel area. A cool point to note, is that this area of each boot also featured the Argentina flag, however due to the sheer amount of match use, those applications actually wore off. We can see above in the image on the right that it's no longer there on the left boot with Leo using them on the pitch in a fixture for PSG. Messi scored goals in this pair vs Angers on January 11th, vs Montpellier on February 1st & Toulouse on February 4th.

With the above side by side angle of the heel area of Messi's version against the retail version, as well as the points already mentioned, we can also spot a few more differences here. Notice that, on the retail version, there is a line of stitching which runs around the exterior of the edge of the ankle collar - this is not there on Messi's version. That is because of his custom interior heel construction, as this stitching on the retail model is what holds the heel liner and padding in place. We can also see that the 'X' branding on Messi's pair is larger, as is the black (leather!) strip at the back with it also being wider at the bottom. 

Yet another modification, a major one too. This is again common across Messi's custom match boots, he has for many years worn a bespoke stud setup and this pair are no different. Whilst they do feature the Speedframe outsole, it incorporates specially shaped studs just for Messi at his request, perhaps this helps add just that extra bit of performance and gives him a bit more confidence when making his sharp, agile, cutting turns and changes of direction. This stud setup is known as the 'Gambatrax' and this particular version is what Messi has used since way back in 2015, that's nearly a decade! The front two and rear two studs have been made conical in shape, a detail Messi has had on his boots since the first time he wore the original F50 Adizero at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The rest of the studs feature a rather aggressive diamond/trangular shape, with the central forefoot stud even featuring his logo embossed! As we casn see by the condition, Messi wore this pair fore a HUGE number of matches! This colourway of the X Speedportal was the first to not incoirporate the Carbotex carbon fibre plate in the forefoot area, well, publicly at least. Messi never actually used, on the pitch, a Speedportal pair with carbon in them - Adidas always made them for him with the same plastic composite insert that we see here.

Moving onto the insoles, and this is yet another modified detail on Messi's boots over the retail version. Although, elite level pros wearing bespoke insoles is very, very common. What we see here is a foam compound which is noticeably more structured than the retail version insoles, a soft black suede liner has also been added on top. The insoles have also been made wider to meet Messi's requirements, on the undersides we can see that in the midfoot areas on both the lateral and medial sides Adidas have added extra foam, however this is a much softer compound than the rest of the insoles. What is rather cool, is that we can see grass staining due to the sheer amount of match use Leo got out of this pair, as well as ink staining from the inner heel label which is applied on top of the insole boards.

Speaking of insole boards, yep you guessed it, they are custom! Another detail here on Messi's boots, the insole boards are incredibly thick and reinforced. They provide the boots with so much additional structure, that there is almost no flex whatsoever anywhere at all, even in the forefoot areas. Now, this is of course a feature that would not be beneficial to everyone, it would be more down to personal preference. It is quite clear to us now that Leo likes his boots to be ultra soft and comfortable, but also, super stiff and rigid. We can also see here the inner heel labels, which state details such as the factory number (502001 for the Athlete Services Adidas factory) & manufacture date, which in this case, is January 2023, which goes to show just how quickly these boots are manufactured for and recieved by the player, as Messi wore this pair across January & February 2023. A retail pair, for example, would not reach the shops for sale within 6 months - at the earliest - from date of manufacture. We can also see that the details on the labels have faded, which is due to the ink transfer to the underside of the insoles, due to severe match use.

The boots feature, in typical Messi fashion, personalisation details of Leo's children's names with their dates of birth 'CIRO 10 03 18', 'THIAGO 02 11 12', 'MATEO 11 09 15', along with his wife's name 'ANTO'. The boots also feature his iconic number '10', which in itself is an interesting detail, as at PSG his squad number was 30, with him only wearing the number 10 for the French side on a handful of occasions, namely against Nice & Marseiile due to the competition rules for said tournament stating that the players starting the match must wear numbers one to 11, so usual squad numbers go out the window in that instance. The Argentina flag did also feature on each boot, however, the applications actually wore off of the boots due to the sheer amount of match use! From these angles of the heels, another cool customisation to mention is to the 'Stability Wings'. The retail version featured just a thin graphic print sitting around the Wings of the Speedframe, however Messi's version features very thick black plastic pieces, which help to further reinforce the heel areas, providing a little more stability - for comparison, the retail heels are rather flimsy and unstructured. 

Our avid followers will of course know by now, but if you're new here, this will be something you will be seeing a lot of and is certainly an interesting fact! Leo Messi's boots are custom made in Germany by Adidas' Athlete Services division which is located at their HQ in Herzogenaurach. Here in this factory, the craftsmen inside make the equipment of only the top elite level sponsored Adidas players such as boots, GK gloves and so on. If you have a favorite football star who wears Adidas boots, it's most likely that they were specially made in this factory - not like the retail versions sold to the public! Everything from build quality, materials used, attention to detail and so on, are levels above the products available on the retail market. Above we can see that this pair are Leo's typically size UK8, which equates to an 8.5 in US sizing. The label itself bares Adidas' motto "Only The Best For The Athlete!" along with "Made in Germany", "Athlete Services" and the address of the location. They also state the left & right sizes separately, as some players have odd sized feet, and Adidas cater for this.