They may not turn you into a Thierry Henry or a Fabio Cannavaro but the latest football boots from the world’s leading manufacturers are packed with enough technology to help any weekend footballer bend it like Beckham.

Look at Adidas’s latest iteration of its well-established Predator model, the Powerswerve. Crafted from kangaroo skin – the lightest, thinnest and strongest leather for a sports shoe – the new model features a tube containing powdered tungsten, one of the heaviest metals, running the length of the outsole. When the player runs normally, the powder is distributed along the floor of the tube. When the player draws back a foot to kick, the powder slides to the front of the boot, adding 40g of extra weight to the “sweet spot”, the point of maximum impact.