Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has returned to pre-season training this week wearing the Nike Mercurial R9 design that launched as part of the Nike "Heritage Pack" in April to celebrate five icon Mercurial World Cup designs.
The Gabonese forward is a leading player for the Nike Hypervenom series but took to the London Colney training facility wearing the Mercurial design that was reimagined on the Mercurial Superfly 360 in a tribute to the Brazilian Ronaldo ahead of the tournament in Russia this summer.
The graphics of the 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 & 2014 Mercurials were reimagined on the new-generation Mercurial Superfly and Vapor 360 editions. Transformed via NikeiD into modern day designs as Nike paid tribute to 20 years of the Mercurial. Aubameyang is unlikely to kick off the new season in the design but the player uptake on these throwback colourways has been significant across all levels.
At the backend of the 2017/18 season each design was worn by players from the respective winning nation of that specific World Cup year: Kylian Mbappe & Ousmane Dembele (France 1998), Philippe Coutinho (Brazil 2002), Federico Chiesa (Italy 2006) Marco Asensio (Spain 2010), Leroy Sane (Germany 2014).
