Zidane, Xavi, and Beckham star in Adidas' new ad ahead of FIFA World Cup

As the countdown to the 2026 FIFA World Cup quietly gathers pace, adidas has begun stretching its creative muscles, and not subtly.

The German sportswear giant has unveiled a cinematic promotional film that leans heavily into football nostalgia, star power and a long-running internal rivalry that only adidas could turn into a storyline. 

The result is Predator vs F50 (two of the brand's most popular football boots), a playful but pointed campaign that signals the brand’s intent to own the conversation well before the first ball is kicked in North America.

The campaign refreshes two of adidas’ most storied football silos, Predator and F50, with new colourways. But the boots themselves are almost secondary to the film that introduces them.

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Set in the shadowy world of an underground international syndicate, the video brings together a roll call of football royalty who are synonymous with the Predator legacy.

Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Paul Pogba, Kaka, Xavi and Alessandro Del Piero are cast as co-conspirators, plotting their next move against an unnamed rival, strongly implied to be Team F50.

Zidane, naturally, plays the boss. From a conference call, he listens as Pogba assures him that “everything is in place”, while Beckham, Kaka and Xavi are shown stationed across football’s most iconic cities.

Madrid, Liverpool, Barcelona and Milan feature as staging posts in what looks less like a product launch and more like a high-budget action drama. Pogba even uses a payphone, a knowing nod to classic crime cinema, to warn that “the other side is moving fast”.

The tension builds with deliberate theatricality. Beckham, surrounded by boxes of freshly minted Predators, insists they will need “much, much more” stock to keep up. Del Piero, dubbed ‘the Zebra’ in the film and notably a player who wore both Predator and F50 during his career, plays the sceptic.

Eventually, Zidane delivers the decisive line. “Treble the shipments.” The message is clear. As the tagline declares, it is time to choose.

Beyond the spectacle, the campaign also serves as a platform for a very specific product story. The collaboration includes the limited-edition rerelease of Zidane’s Predator Precision from 2000, a boot originally created as an exclusive for the Frenchman after he won the FIFA World Player of the Year award. Zidane famously wore the pair in a friendly against Germany in 2001. Two decades on, the rerelease functions as both a tribute to Zidane’s legacy and a reminder of an era when the Predator defined midfield dominance.

There is a wider subtext at play, too. Almost as soon as the film dropped, social media lit up with praise, not just for the execution of the ad but for what it represents. Comparisons with Nike, once the undisputed master of icon-led football advertising, were swift.

One user on X wrote, “The way adidas has completely snatched Nike’s crown in the football world needs to be studied."

The way Adidas has completely snatched Nike’s crown in the football world needs to be studied https://t.co/BM3uAkIwLa

— AB⚕ (@AbsoluteBruno) January 23, 2026

Another pointed to Nike’s kit strategies, arguing that a modular design approach with similar templates in different colours dulled its edge.

There’s a case study to be made about how Adidas overtook Nike in football. That modular design template, same kits in different colours really killed them. https://t.co/FhXx2Ysi19

— Minnie (@saintdutchess) January 22, 2026

What makes adidas’ move even more intriguing is who does not appear. Lionel Messi, arguably the brand’s most valuable active football ambassador, is entirely absent from the film.

His omission feels deliberate rather than accidental. By foregrounding retired legends and leaning into heritage rather than current performance, adidas appears to be playing a longer game.

It is building a mythos around its boots and its past, perhaps leaving space for something bigger, and more Messi-centric, closer to the World Cup itself.