Nike’s Mercurial Vapor IV shoes are supposed to be one of the lightest pairs of football boots ever made – but do they really help players run faster?

Last month, Cristiano Ronaldo recorded his first Premier League hat-trick against Newcastle, scoring all three goals in the span of 40 minutes in Manchester United’s six-goal second half.

Nearly three weeks later, he scored two goals in four minutes against Portsmouth, the second coming on a free kick that Sir Alex Ferguson said was the best free kick he’d ever seen in the Premier League.

Not that he needed anything to make him even better, but it may well be the shoes.

The boots in question are Nike’s new Mercurial Vapors IV, one of the lightest pairs of boots they’ve ever made. By now, you’ve probably seen highlights of his barrage of goals over the last month many times, and you may have also seen the footage of him in the shoes racing a Bugatti Veyron, one of the fastest cars in the world.

And two days before Ronaldo’s hat trick against Newcastle – which came the first time he wore the shoes in a match (guess he needed a half to get used to them), two of the fastest players in the Premier League, and two of England’s brightest talents, tested out the shoes in a test of speed and skill, as Tottenham winger Aaron Lennon and Aston Villa attacker Gabriel Agbonlahor faced off on a 45-meter track to see who was fastest to the ball and with the ball.

The full videos won’t be available to the masses until Monday 11th Feb, but lucky SL readers get to see the raw footage a little early.

I won’t play spoiler and say who wins – you can see for yourself – but it’s worth saying that the two would have been even faster had the conditions been more favorable.

To check out the site, which will include full videos and details on getting in on the action yourself in the Mercurial Speed Test, and to check out the video of Ronaldo racing the Bugatti, click here. And, to see the raw footage of the two young stars in action, without further ado, here it is. Enjoy!

Aaron Lennon – raw footage from xenon on Vimeo.

Gabby Agbonlahor – raw footage from xenon on Vimeo.