Soccer Equipment Reviews

Fresh off the airplane, the Golden Boot looked for its first opportunity to make itself known to the fans in Johannesburg, as well as those across the world!

A few hours after arriving at the Johannesburg airport and being greeted by the vevuzelas that were being played in the customs line, the Golden Boot received an invitation to Jobulani Central. What is Jobulani Central you may ask? The Golden Boot will tell you!

Jobulani Central is Adidas’ hub for the World Cup. All the top (and bottom) Adidas people are there, and the Golden Boot was invited to go to the center. With all the Adidas’ national team kits and boots on display, Jobulani Central is any boot lover’s dream! The best part of the first room (yes, this is only the first room!) are the Adidas sponsored awards given at the end of the tournament. These include the Golden Glove for best keeper, the Golden Boot for top goal scorer, and the Golden Ball for the best player of the tournament.

In the middle room is a gigantic screen playing all the latest and live matches from the World Cup with rows of chairs for the media and press to watch the games. Surrounding the screen are huge portraits of Adidas sponsored players from every side, along with some other paintings which we will get into later on in this post. In the backroom is a smaller screen complete with a mini bar! Like I said, Jobulani Central is any soccer fan’s fantasy world!

You’re probably wondering what the paintings and portraits are doing hanging up in Jobulani Central, because we certainly were! There are exactly 32 portraits of one Adidas sponsored player from each national side. For example (or more than one example!), Argentina=Messi, South Africa=Pienaar, Netherlands=Van Persie, USA=Altidore, England=Gerrard, and so on. Below each portrait is the player’s name, along with their nickname, so Messi is the Spark, or Gerrard is the Powerhourse etc. Then Adidas take it to the next level, by swapping the paintings’ locations each match, to have portrait match-ups representing their teams’ matches. So, when England played the United States, Altidore and Gerrard hung next to eachother. After each round, the players who are part of teams that have been knocked out will be taken down from the wall, until there are only two left, which obviously represents the Finals. This was/is one thing the Golden Boot has found to be pretty cool here in South Africa!

Not only are there portraits of Adidas sponsored players, there are also larger paintings of what Adidas deem to be the ‘highlight of the day’. So, the first painting depicts the South Africa team placing their hands on Pienaar’s head, or another one is of Podolski smashing home Germany’s opener against the Socceroos of Australia. Each of these paintings will then be auctioned off at the end of the tournament, and all the proceeds will go towards the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

In regards to the Golden Boot, we received a ton of looks and for the braver of those inside the Center, a lot of pictures as well! We also had the opportunity to meet some top people from Adidas as well as interview the top designers and engineers of the hotly-debated Jabulani ball. However, there will be a separate post with more photos and the interview! So stay tuned for more from the Golden Boot Chronicles, SER’s World Cup Center!