Zakumi v The Oldies

The World Cup mascot should be well-designed and represent three things: the host nation, football and fun. Zakumi is the South Africa 2010 mascot: he’s a fun, attractive character and the football theme is clearly apparent. And as Zakumi is a leopard, the links to the South African nation are clear. The name Zakumi is a composite of ZA, standing for South Africa and ‘Kumi’ which means ’10′ in several languages across Africa. This further underscores his continental and national associations.

Mascot designs tend to run in trends, so it will be interesting to see if the choice of an animal mascot accompanies the tournament in 2014. In the 70s all of the mascots were of human-style figures, Juanito for Mexico 70, Tip and Tap for West Germany 74, and then Gauchito for Argentina 78.

Juanito, Tip & Tap, and Gauchito

Food was the theme in the 1980s: Naranjito, an orange, for Spain 82; and Pique, a jalapeno pepper, for Mexico 86.

Naranjito & Pique

The first World Cup mascot was World Cup Willie (a lion) in 1966. It was a while until an animal was used as a mascot figure again, but since the 1990s they have predominated with Striker the dog for USA 94, followed by Footix the cockerel for France 98, Goleo a lion (with a talking football called Pille) for Germany 06, and now Zakumi.

World Cup Willie, Striker, Footix & Goleo with Pille

These overall trends have experienced the occasional intermission in the shape of more indeterminate figures/ computer characters: Ciao for Italy 90, and Kaz, Ato and Nik for Japan/South Korea 02.

Ciao, and Kaz, Ato & Nik

Below we have marked all of the mascots (out of 10) based on design and the three criteria outlined above. It’s quite difficult to rate the linkage with football, as this is usually just captured by including a ball in the design, but we have tried to assess the credibility of the mascot as a footballing character (or characters).