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1) World Cup Willie - a British lion wearing the Union Jack - the mascot for the 1966 competition, was the first World Cup mascot, and one of the first mascots to be associated with a major sporting competition.
Source: Wikipedia
2) The names of Ato, Nik and Kaz, the mascots for the 2002 competition, represented energy particles in the atmosphere and were inspired by Korea's and Japan's long-established tradition of fantasy story telling.
Source: hispaniconline
3) Animal, vegetable, mineral? Between 1966 and 2006 there have been two lions, one cockerel, one dog, four little boys, one orange, one chillipepper, three aliens, a Rubrik-cubish type thing and a talking football.
4) Pique the little chillipepper, the mascot of the 1986 competition, became so popular that it released a song which went (Editor's translation from the Spanish): "The battle has begun, the ball is in play, hearts begin to beat as the first goal is scored."
Source: duodedos.com
5) Striker the playful dog, the mascot at the 1994 competiton, was chosen after 25,000 Americans voted for their favorite name. It was supposed to represent the youth, vitality and excitement of soccer in the USA.
Source: sunsite.tus.ac.jp
6) Gauchito, at the 1978 competition, was the second mascot to wear a hat typical of the country he came from. He also wore a handkerchief around his neck and carried a whip, not something usually associated with football!
7) David Hand, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Languages at the Manchester Metropolitan University in England, wrote what he believes to be the only "in depth analysis of the official mascot of the 1998 football World Cup, Footix, who is seen as a post modern mascot connecting with myths from France's past while being very much a product of its commercial present."
Read abstract
8) Journalist Virginia Lauricella wrote an article on the LANACION.COM website in which she invents biographies for some of the different mascots.
Naranjito (1982): his career went downhill after the television show he starred in came to an end. He went off to Ibiza to try his luck, but got fed up with people shouting "Bring me an orange juice" and locked himself away in his appartment.
Footix (1998) was actually born in the USA, and only went to France when he retired. After leading the good life for some time he got himself back in shape and turned up at an audition, in which he was chosen as the mascot.
Ciao (1990): was jealous of past mascots because they were so soft and he was not, and so he fell into a deep depression. To raise his spirits he underwent plastic surgery to make his face look like that of his idol, Toto Schillaci. Jobs that followed included being part of the collection of a museum of contemporary art and the awning of a sports clothes shop.
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