Atletico Madrid’s Joao Felix has become the latest player to be spotted trialling the next generation COPA, giving us our best look yet at the upcoming release from adidas.

Joao Felix is one of the prime COPA players in the adidas setup, second in status only to Paulo Dybala. The Argentine has already had his hands on the next generation COPA, giving us our first look at the prototype, and now Felix has been given the latest version of the silo to test out in training, giving us an even closer look at what’s to come, revealing further details from the upper as well as details of what seems to be a new soleplate. 

As we all know, the COPA is available in both a laceless (+) and laced (.1) variation, and there’s no reason to expect that to change with the arrival of the next generation. However, we’re yet to see a clear look of the laced version, with Joao Felix again opting for the laceless prototype as he put them through their paces in training. What we see then is an even clearer look at that heavily reworked upper, with that new wavy aesthetic. Those waves seem to hug the contours of the foot far more accurately, hinting at the possibility of a more date-driven fit. The collar also seems to have been shaped significantly around the ankle, again likely to improve the overall comfort and fit of the boot. 

The other thing this peek gives us is a first look at the underside of the boot (see the top image). In that we see that the soleplate also looks to have been reworked, with a sleeker design and a slightly altered stud layout. All change for the COPA, and likely we’ll be seeing this one more and more as we near a release.

Stay tuned for more news on the upcoming adidas COPA as and when we get it...