Ready To Wear: The peacock male will be wearing animal print

My affection for Cristiano Ronaldo is well documented. (I would, basically.) It soared to unprecedented heights last weekend, however, with the unveiling of his new boots.

Yes, henceforward Ronaldo, the ultimate peacock male, will mostly be wearing animal print. Techno animal print. The design is called Mercurial Safari – which brings late-Nineties French electro to mind, but don't let that put you off.

The jury's still out with at least some followers of the beautiful game as to just how beautiful the current vogue for look-at-me footwear may be. Ronaldinho's purple (or should that be parma violet?) boots were remarkably pretty. Bendtner's rose-pink boots also went some way towards subverting the more obviously manly view.

A quick browse through Nike's website (and Nike is invariably the hero/villain here) and this season alone reveals boots in everything from acid yellow to gold, vivid lime to magenta. We've come quite some way since the odd player dared to wear bright white boots in the Seventies and was perceived as making a radical statement for that.

It almost goes without saying that this is just the latest in a long line of marketing ploys that have become increasingly loud and proud given the heightened visibility of football and, of course, its main protagonists. Anyone familiar with the workings of the school playground will know that it has worked. You can't move these days for Day-Glo AstroTurf boots that brighten up even the dullest of winter mornings while bringingout every embarrassing (and embarrassed) mum and dad in the vicinity in hives. It wasn't like that in their day, of course. Real men didn't wear parma violet and rose pink in strangely shiny hi-tech (read sweaty) materials back then. And so forth.

Leave it to Ronaldo, though, to up the ante. While it might be argued that animal print is ubiquitous, it is still predominantly aimed at women – even the most reconstructed male is likely to go no further than a leopard-print tie, say.

There was a time when black football boots were the thing for the bright, young and fashionable to see and be seen wearing. You could get them signed by George Best. With this in mind, sooner or later some-one's bound to go retro. The smart money's on Ryan Giggs.