Neymar Barcelona Vapor X edited

Neymar in the Vapor X?? In one of the more bizarre and unexpected boot switches of the young season, Brazilian and Barcelona superstar Neymar has switched out of the Hypervenom Phantom II, into the latest Electro Flare version of the Nike Mercurial Vapor. Even today in Barcelona’s training, Neymar was spotted wearing a pair of Vapor X’s dressed to look like the latest Hypervenom Phinish. There is no shortage of speculation going on as to why Neymar would switch into the speed boot. I thought it would a good idea to not focus on just one, but to take a look at a few possibilities as to why the superstar would switch out of the line of cleats that was designed with him specifically in mind.

Nike is making Neymar the Vapor-headlining athlete

Nike has an athlete who is headlining every cleat they have on their top tier, from Ronaldo and Alexis in the Mercurial Superfly to Gotze and David Luiz in the Magista Obra. But the Vapor has sort of fallen by the wayside and has not been marketed to the masses as much as the socked options from Nike. Yes, professional players are wearing the Vapor X, but Nike is not spreading the Vapor to the public as much as the Superfly.

But what does this mean for Neymar? The Mercurial lineup is nothing new to Neymar, considering he used to wear the Vapor as a child and even switched into the Vapor IX a few times while wearing the 1st generation Hypervenom. With Robert Lewandowski absolutely destroying any and every opponent that stands in his way, the Polish Hypervenom athlete could be the new headliner for the boot. Nike recently presented him with his own custom Phantom and it comes at the same time Neymar has been wearing the Vapor. Nike could soon make Lewandowski the Phantom headliner with Neymar in the Vapor. And not to mention with Cristiano Ronaldo’s (30) retirement only a few years away, could Neymar become the long-term Mercurial headliner? Of course this is all speculation, but the timing of it all is very interesting.

Neymar is a boot nerd

Many of us here on The Instep are huge boot nerds. Every soccer cleat is different in some way to another cleat and maybe Neymar wants to try out another Nike boot. I have been able to try out both cleats that Neymar has worn this season and both are extremely high quality cleats. The Vapor is a much more of a barefoot-like feel. That could be something Neymar himself prefers over the thicker Phantom II. Neymar may like this colorway of the Vapor and that pushed him to give them a try. He has been wearing them in matches so maybe he likes them more than he thought he would.

Neymar is in a slump and wants to switch it up

Neymar has not been at the very top of his game and he could be looking to switch something up to try to break this slump. There is not much you can change as a professional athlete and he already changed his hair-do. So naturally the next step would be to change your boots. I know whenever I had some bad games I would try to switch up my boots to see if anything helped.

These are all just some of the options that I think are the most likely to be true. Who knows, Neymar could even switch back into the Phantom tomorrow but with how much he has worn the Vapor X, this could also be a permanent switch.

 

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