彩色世界杯？352名球員，只有12名穿黑色戰(zhàn)靴

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Fancy footwear in an array of dazzling colours has been the order of the day. What are the most popular choices? And how many players have dared to wear old-fashioned black?

It used to be that coloured boots were the sole preserve of one or two flashy, flair players per football team. They were the exceptions to the rule: the cocky prima donnas to their journeymen teammates.

Not any more. From Hackney Marshes to the Premier League, everyone now wants to be the star. What's amazing is how quickly we've grown accustomed to flash Harrys. Back in 1970, Hummel caused shockwaves by sending a few star players out in its white footwear; now white is conclusively the new black.

I know, because I've spent the past fortnight obsessively staring at footballers' feet and making notes. In this World Cup, it seems, we've finally reached saturation point: coloured boots have now become so devalued that Puma have gone one step further, releasing the evoPOWER Tricks Boot – with one shoe in pink and the other in blue. Even Mario Balotelli thought they were a bit much ("I have to be honest, the first time I saw the Tricks boots, I thought the Puma guy was mad," he admitted).

As the World Cup has played out, so the dazzling array of coloured footwear has become ever more bewildering. White has become the predominant colour. But that's just for kick-off.

True flair players have had to up the ante: for the knockout stages, Neymar has even awarded himself his own golden boot, courtesy of Nike. Messi has gone one step further by attempting to fit every single available colour on one boot with his personal Adidas Lionel Messi 2014World Cup Birthday Boot – worn for the match against Nigeria on 25 June (the day after his 27th birthday).

Isn't this all getting a bit much? Whatever happened to the no-nonsense, socks-around-the-ankles (as opposed to over the knees) approach? It's hard to imagine Terry Butcher turning out in one – any – of the new designs. It's time someone put their foot down.

I engaged in some unscientific research, tallying the most popular colourways for the starting XI of each nation as the tournament progressed. The results were even more stark than expected: of 352 players, only 12 wore black boots in contrast to 118 in white (or variations thereof), 96 in yellow and 64 in orange.

Surely it's time for someone to shake up the status quo? It would be about the cockiest thing a player could do – like a modern-day George Best, with his bare shins taunting the leg-breakers – to turn out in ordinary black boots and make the statement that they don't need fancy footwear to dazzle the opposition.

The black-booted dirty dozen of the World Cup is heavy on goalkeepers, including Sergio Romero (Argentina), Asmir Begovic (Bosnia & Herzegovina), Charles Itandje (Cameroon), Joe Hart (England), Alireza Haghighi (Iran) and Maya Yoshida (Japan). An honourable mention, though, goes to Colombian playmaker Juan Cuadrado, who stepped out in a pair of black boots (albeit with a yellow flash) for the Group C clash with Greece on 14 June.

Who's special now?