While it was his hand that received the most attention yesterday, you will no doubt have taken note of Leo Messi’s rather fetching golden footwear recently. 

Leo’s boots, as pictured above in the Barca v Real Betis game, are a special edition golden version of his regular adizero F50’s.  The one off boots were presented to Leo by adidas to celebrate his third Ballon d’Or award and are a nice tribute to an already legendary player.

So are golden boots a new thing?  Not at all.  We spoke to adidas who have a long tradition of marking their players’ greatest achievements and they told us that while it wasn’t always possible to make customised coloured footwear, they took a different approach, casting the celebrated wearer’s original boots in gold. 

On the image slider above, in addition to Leo’s recent sparkly footwear, are Gerd Müller’s gold world champion boot awarded for his starring role in the 1974 World Cup, and Andi Brehme’s gold Etrusco boot presented for his brilliance at Italia 90.

It beats dipping marshmallows in chocolate, no?