Adidas v Nike: Which Footwear Giant Is The Premier League King?

With football fans across the world still buzzing from the release of the iconic Adidas Predator football boots over the past few weeks, Gambling.com picked their current Adidas Premier League XI...while also seeing how fierce rivals Nike compare, for good measure.

These days, professional footballers have an obligation to wear their respective brand when it comes to footwear, but not many fans are aware which players are affiliated to which labels. 

According to Football Boots Database, Nike and Adidas currently dominate the Premier League with a huge 85% boot share- with Adidas edging it with 43% to Nike’s 42%. Their nearest rivals, Puma, are well behind in third place with 11%. 

Adidas has the most popular boot worn by Premier League stars, with their ‘Adidas X’ boot currently worn by 113 players across the entire league - which narrowly trumps the ‘Nike Mercurial’ boot in second place (110). 

The new Adidas Predator boot, worn by the likes of Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold is fourth, with 72 players currently showcasing the reinvented classic. 

Mohamed Salah (Adidas) and Erling Haaland (Nike) lead each team's attack and both are favourites with football betting sites to win this season Golden Boot award.

Gambling.com picked their Premier League XI teams for both Adidas and Nike - as well as calculating their individual and combined transfer value, according to Transfermarkt. 

Which team would come out on top and do you agree with our selections?

The Adidas Premier League XI team is stacked with talent with a mixture of pace, trickery and deadly finishing ability. 

Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario is in between the sticks after a dream start to life in England while Liverpool superstar Trent Alexander-Arnold and Newcastle’s set piece specialist, Kieran Trippier, make up the full back positions. 

In midfield, Arsenal’s £105m midfield man, Declan Rice, lines up alongside Aston Villa’s in-form Douglas Luiz while Man City magician, Bernardo Silva, is sure to pull the strings with his trusty left foot. 

The forward line certainly doesn’t disappoint with Liverpool’s deadly Egyptian Salah, Tottenham captain Heung-Min Son, and West Ham top scorer, Jarrod Bowen, providing top quality firepower up front.

Our Nike Premier League XI would take some stopping, that’s for sure. 

Liverpool’s Alisson, one of the world’s best shot stoppers, gets the nod in between the sticks while Tottenham’s impressive duo, Micky Van de Ven and Pedro Porro are the full backs. 

At centre half, world class defenders William Saliba of Arsenal and Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk provide the steel behind this team.

In midfield, Manchester City’s Mr.Reliable Rodri, lines up next to Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes, while the the genius of Kevin de Bruyne is a massive asset in breaking down even the most stubborn teams in world football. 

Just the sight of Man City’s goal machine Erling Haaland, is sure to send shivers down any opposition defence, and he is supported by the pace of Marcus Rashford and the skill of Phil Foden, who has undoubtedly recaptured his best form this season.

We think the Nike XI would be big favourites with UK betting sites to win a one-off game, and whilst the odds are hypothetical of course our compilers and stats team would price it up as:

• Nike XI - 8/13 (62% chance of winning)
• Draw - 3/1 (25% chance of a draw)
• Adidas XI - 17/4 (20% chance of winning)

Methodology

For the purposes of this article, players who were signed by their current club before January 1, 2022, we used the price valuation on Transfermarkt.

Players who joined their current clubs after January 1, 2022, we used the reported transfer fee for each player.

All data was correct as of January 15, 2024.