Lionel Messi has wasted no time getting to grips with an adidas 2019 project as the Barcelona man returned to training following the festive break in a never-before-seen pair of black out adidas boots.

Before anyone starts to panic about Messi jumping from the Three Stripes ship, the likely indication here is that we’re looking at the next generation of the Nemeziz boot. The Nemeziz 19 is set for a likely release sometime around the end of the domestic 18/19 season, so it makes sense from a timing perspective that adidas’s star man would be giving a prototype the once over.

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The boots themselves are fairly recognisable as Nemeziz, however the upper looks thinner and the collar has certainly been altered. Rumour is that the Nemeziz 19 will feature a fairly different soleplate to the current generation, but there were no clear glimpses of the underside of Messi’s feet to confirm this. Messi is the first player to be seen in this next-gen Nemeziz, but he certainly won’t be the last, so you can expect to see the likes of Roberto Firmino, Bernado Silva, Julian Draxler and Jesse Lingard all trialling them in the coming months.

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Stay tuned for more on the next generation adidas Nemeziz 19 boots...