“I am back”: Cristiano Ronaldo returns at the World Cup with two goals — and sets a record along the way. Nike marks the moment by honouring CR7 with a gold Mercurial Superfly.
It took six minutes in Houston. In their second group game of this World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo poked the ball over the line and set a mark no player had reached before him. With that goal, the first of his two in the match, the 41-year-old became the first player to score at six different World Cups: 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 and now 2026.
A week earlier, in the 1-1 draw with DR Congo, Ronaldo had failed to score and reignited the familiar debate about his age. Against Uzbekistan he answered it on the pitch: he led Portugal to a 5-0 win and was named man of the match at full time.
Nike Mercurial Superfly RGN “Gold”: Cristiano Ronaldo’s Boot for the World Cup Record
To mark the occasion, Nike is releasing a special edition of the Mercurial Superfly RGN. The colour fits the record: gold. Officially, the colorway is called Metallic Gold Star/White.
Ronaldo’s signature sits across the Swoosh, the heel carries “CR7” and Mercurial branding, and the insole reads “GOAT”.
From the 2009 Superfly I to Ronaldo’s Gold Edition
The appeal of this boot lies in its age. The original, the Superfly I, launched in 2009, when Ronaldo was at the peak of his Manchester United years. Nike staged the launch at Old Trafford in early 2009, with Ronaldo front and centre, and brought the Superfly to market as its most advanced football boot to date: just 185 grams, with Flywire cables in the upper and a carbon-fibre soleplate. In the years that followed, Ronaldo turned the Mercurial Superfly into one of the best-known and most coveted football boots.
The current series picks up that story. RGN stands for Regeneration: Nike uses it to bring defining Mercurial models back from the archive, keeping the original’s look and updating the soleplate and materials for the modern game. After three Vapor models, the Superfly extends the series to a different silhouette for the first time.
Nike had already brought back the Max Orange colorway in the spring; now comes gold. At 41, Ronaldo — for two decades Nike’s defining face in football — is in all likelihood playing his last World Cup.
In Nike’s World Cup film “Rip the Script”, Ronaldo and LeBron James are handed a script titled “The GOAT’s Goodbye” — and pass it back and forth, since neither is ready to bow out. The Gold edition fits the same story: a tribute to a player who wants nothing to do with a farewell.
The Nike Mercurial Superfly RGN “Gold” releases on 24 June at 5pm CET via Nike and select retailers.
