Mascot of FIFA World Cup
Each World Cup since 1966 has its own mascot. Willy,the first World Cup mascot for the 1966 World Cup competition, and one of the first mascot was associated with a significant sports competitions. Olympic mascot designs show some representative characteristics (costume, flora, fauna, etc.) of the host country.
The World Cup mascot is frequently one or more anthropomorphic characters targeted at children with cartoon shows and other merchandise released to coincide with the competition.
1966 World Cup was held in England,the mascot is “World Cup Willie”
A lion, a typical symbol of the United Kingdom, wearing a Union Flag jersey with the words “WORLD CUP”.
1970 World Cup was held in Mexico,the mascot is “Juanito”
A boy wearing Mexico’s kit and a sombrero (with the words “MEXICO 70″). His name is the diminutive of “Juan”, a common name in Spanish.
1974 World Cup was held in West Germany,the mascot is tip and Tap
Two boys wearing Germany kits, with the letters WM (Weltmeisterschaft, World Cup) and number 74.
1978 World Cup was held in Argentina,the mascot is Gauchito
A boy wearing Argentina’s kit. His hat (with the words ARGENTINA ‘78), neckerchief and whip are typical of gauchos.
1982 World Cup was held in Spain,the mascot is Naranjito
An orange, a typical fruit in Spain, wearing the kit of the host’s national team. Its name comes from naranja, Spanish for orange, and the diminutive suffix “-ito”.
1986 World Cup was held in Mexico,the mascot is Pique
A jalapeno pepper, characteristic of Mexican cuisine, with a moustache and wearing a sombrero. Its name comes from picante, Spanish for spicy peppers and sauces.
1990 World Cup was held in in Italy,the mascot is Ciao
A stick figure player with a football head and an Italian tricolore body. Its name is an Italian greeting.
1994 World Cup was held in United States,the mascot is Striker,the World Cup Pup
A dog, a common US pet animal, wearing a red, white and blue football uniform with the words “USA 1994″.
1998 World Cup was held in France,the mascot is Footix
A rooster, one of the national symbols of France, with the words “FRANCE 98″ on the chest. Its body is mostly blue, like the host’s national team shirt and its name is a portmanteau of “football” and the ending “-ix” from the popular Astérix comic strip. Other proposed names were “Raffy”, “Houpi” and “Gallik”.
2002 World Cup was held in Korea/Japan,the mascot is Ato, Kaz and Nik (The Spheriks)
Orange, purple and blue (respectively) futuristic, computer-generated creatures. Collectively members of a team of “Atmoball” (a fictional football-like sport), Ato is the coach while Kaz and Nik are players. The three individual names were selected from shortlists by users on the Internet and at McDonald’s outlets in the host countries.
2006 World Cup was held in Germany,the mascot is Goleo VI
A lion wearing a Germany shirt with the number 06 and a talking football named Pille. Goleo is a portmanteau of the words “goal” and “leo”, the Latin word for lion. In Germany, “Pille” is a colloquial term for a football.
2010 is held in South Africa,the mascot is Zakumi
Zakumi is a leopard, a common animal found in South Africa, with green hair wearing a shirt saying South Africa world cup 2010. Zakumi’s green and gold colors represents South African national sports’ teams colors. His name comes from “ZA”, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for South Africa, and “kumi”, a word that means “ten” in various African languages.
