Football mascots can always be relied to bring a bit of comic relief to what is – let's face it – a fairly stressful game at times.
Taking in clubs around the world, and entire tournaments, FFT has picked out the very best of the (mostly) furry bunch.
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Italian outfit ChievoVerona took on the nickname of I Mussi Volanti (The Flying Donkeys) after fans of arch-rivals Hellas Verona joked that they’d only be promoted “if donkeys could fly”.
And while the winged equine pictured here with Chievo supporters isn’t the club’s official mascot, we rather think it should be.
On the face of it, Wycombe’s mascot is just a bloke dressed as a bloke – but there is a proper backstory here.
You see, back in the 19th century, High Wycombe was the biggest producer of chairs in the UK, churning out almost 5,000 of the things every day at its peak – and the men who made them were known as bodgers, the most famous of all being record club appearance maker and goalscorer Tony Horseman.
The 2006 World Cup in Germany gave us two mascots for the price of one: Goleo – an anthropomorphic lion with more than a slight resemblance to kids’ TV icon Bear in the Big Blue House – and his sidekick, a talking football named Pille.
Goleo didn’t go down too well with the German public, who protested that a lion was not a German animal (to be fair, it’s not) and the mascot should have been an eagle or [checks notes] a squirrel instead.
Badgers don’t really have anything to do with Fulham, but the West London club do share their colours with those of the wood-dwelling mustelid – hence Billy the Badger.
One of the more traditional mascots in the Premier League, Billy wears the number 79 shirt in a nod to the Cottagers’ foundation year, 1979.
A considerable upgrade on his predecessor, the permanently surprised-looking Herbie the Hammer, Hammerhead has more than an air of Iron Man about him.
West Ham have likened their mascot to two all-time club greats, claiming he’s “as fast as Billy Bonds and blessed with the goalscoring prowess of Vic Watson”. If you say so…
It may be their official nickname, but no one ever really informally refers to Manchester United as ‘the Red Devils’, do they? It’s just ‘United’, isn’t it?
Nonetheless, the little horned creature features prominently on the Premier League giants’ badge – and Fred the Red has been their mascot for some three decades.
A whole crop of English players made legends of themselves by winning the 1966 World Cup on home soil, but we can’t forget about another absolute icon of the tournament: World Cup Willie.
The first ever World Cup mascot, Willie ultimately became the mascot of the England team, being given a makeover for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico – when he donned a sombrero on top of his Beatles-esque haircut.
Mexico’s first World Cup mascot was a kid in a sombrero, Juanito; their second was much better: Pique, a moustachioed jalapeno pepper wearing a sombrero with the top cut out.
To date, he remains the only World Cup mascot to exist in the form of a humanoid vegetable. Do better, modern World Cup hosts…
The streets around Real Betis’ Estadio Benito Villamarin are lined with palm trees, and it’s from there that the LaLiga club drew inspiration for their mascot.
A perennially happy chappy, Palmerin has rocked various hairstyles in his time, such is the versatility of palm leaves – complete with an almighty hairband.
It might seem strange for the USA to host the 2024 Copa America, South America’s premier international competition, but it’s actually the second time it’s happened – in the space of nine years.
In any case, it’s given us a fantastic mascot: Capitan, an eagle – the national animal of the States and also, according to the tournament organisers, a symbol of the “freedom, passion and the indomitable and determined spirit that characterizes the participating teams”. So there.
Japan has a bit of an obsession with mascots – and we have to say we’re a bit obsessed with Tokyo Dorompa, the mascot introduced by J.League outfit FC Tokyo in 2009.
Is he a mouse? Nope! He’s actually a tanuki (aka Japanese raccoon dog) – and he’s got his own YouTube channel and everything.
The first World Cup to feature 32 teams, France 98 also had one of the tournament’s most iconic mascots.
We can only assume that Footix, a Gallic rooster (the national emblem of France), was a goalkeeper as he always seemed to be holding the ball (and Thierry Henry’s infamous ‘handball’ against the Republic of Ireland didn’t happen for another 11 years.
Another fondly remembered World Cup, Italia ’90 introduced the world to Ciao, a stick figure in the colours of the Italian flag and with a football for a head.
It looked ridiculous, but that’s a big part of what also made it so iconic. Ciao is also probably the easiest World Cup mascot to build with LEGO – which is quite important.
From a stick figure to a literal person now, and to Timber Joey of MLS franchise the Portland Timbers.
There’s no costume here, just a guy with a hardhat and a chainsaw slicing off a slab of log every time the Timbers score at home. It’s utterly bizarre, but they get away with it because, well, America.
Back in England, there’s another blade-wielding mascot: Sheffield United’s Captain Blade, a pot-bellied pirate with not one but two swords (and an eye patch, naturally).
Ok, his weapons look a bit too plush to do any damage, but we still wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of him just to be safe…
We’re not sure there are supposed to be aliens on the Moon, but Manchester City mascots Moonchester (we love a pun) and Moonbeam are clearly extraterrestrials.
Their names are a nod to the perennial Premier League champions’ club anthem, ‘Blue Moon’ – a 1934 song by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart (the more you know…).
There aren’t many animals downright cooler than an armadillo (we’re certain David Attenborough would agree), and the adorable shelled critters can be found in Brazil, hosts of the 2014 World Cup.
Specifically a Brazilian three-banded armadillo, Fuleco’s name is a portmanteau (ish)of the Portuguese words for football (‘futebol’) and ecology (‘ecologia’), and part of his responsibility was to promote environmentalism. What a hero!
The literal translation of ‘Naranjito’ from Spanish to English would be ‘Little Orange’ – but as you can say, Naranjito wasn’t exactly on the small side.
But then a small orange as a mascot for the 1982 World Cup just wouldn’t have worked or been remotely as memorable as this football-clutching fella.
Owing to legend that the locals once hanged a monkey, believing it to be a French spy, Hartlepool natives are known as ‘Monkey Hangers’ – and so are the football team.
It’s only right, then, that their mascot is a monkey named H’Angus (like Angus, geddit?) – who was once escorted out of the ground by police, accused of being drunk…
They seem to love their puns up in the north of England, and we love Harrogate’s decision to go with Harry Gator as their mascot.
Unveiled in 2018, Harry was designed by students in the Yorkshire spa town – whose main club won promotion to the Football League for the first time in 2020.
At first glance, you’d probably assume that the dog on Tijuana’s badge is a Chihuahua – but it’s actually the bigger, even-harder-to-spell Xoloitzcuintle (which, thankfully, can be shortened to Xolo).
And it’s probably just as well, or the Mexican club’s veritably ripped mascot would look a bit silly, to be honest.
There’s nothing remotely subtle about the mascot of Brazilian club Bahia: he’s a fairly blatant rip-off of Superman.
But we can’t deny he’s one seriously cool guy – and in 2018, he gained a seriously cool sidekick in Lindona da Baea, who definitely wasn’t inspired by another DC character, Wonder Woman…
Dutch outfit Willem II take their name from William II, King of the Netherlands from 1840 and 1849, and they’ve followed suit with their mascot.
Ok, they probably could have come up with a more inspiring name for him than Kingo, but that’s a regal-looking lion if ever we saw one.
As the home of the Wombles, there wasn’t really any other option for Wimbledon than to make their mascot one of the beloved litter-picking bear-like rodents, was there?
A regular fixture at the Dons’ Plough Lane home, Haydon has been known to wheel a bin around the ground – then slide on it (don’t act like you wouldn’t if given the opportunity).
A giant cucumber wearing a Zorro-type mask and a cape, Leganes’ Super Pepino is everything a mascot should be.
The Spanish club haven’t spent much time in the top flight in recent years, but nothing can detract from the fact that they have one of the best mascots in the game.
Watford’s long-serving mascot, Harry the Hornet made headlines in 2016 for mocking Wilfried Zaha.
Zaha had gained a reputation for diving, so Harry decided to theatrically throw himself to the floor during Watford’s home clash with Crystal Palace – much to the annoyance of opposing manager Roy Hodgson, who labelled his conduct “disgraceful”. It was actually just very funny.
Swansea’s Cyril the Swan is even more notorious than Harry the Hornet, being accused of bringing the game into disrepute with his antics – which only makes him more of a legend, really.
Case in point: removing the head of Millwall mascot Zampa the Lion and drop-kicking it away – earning himself a £1,000 fine. We can only assume he’s better behaved when he's with his wife, Cybil.
The winning design in a competition among local schoolchildren, Crusty the Pie became Wigan’s official mascot in 2019.
“We designed Crust like this because everyone in Wigan loves pies,” the kids responsible said of their effort. You can’t say fairer than that! In fact, more than half of the entries involved a pie in some way.
Koln are nicknamed the Billy Goats, and their mascot is one – a real, live one called Hennes, named after legendary player and manager Hennes Weisweiler.
The German club have had their fair share of goats over the years and at the time of writing, they’re on Hennes IX (that’s Hennes the Ninth).
There was palpable outrage in 2020 when Gunnersaurus, beloved mascot of Arsenal since 1993, was sacked.
And so furious was the backlash that the North London giants reinstated the cuddly green dinosaur almost immediately, with Mesut Ozil even offering to pay the wages of the person in the suit. Justice.
We wouldn’t normally be fans of a mascot being tied to the club’s shirt sponsor, but West Brom’s Boiler Man is no ordinary mascot.
Having signed a deal with Ideal Boilers, the Baggies unveiled Boiler Man at their opening game of the 2018/19 season – and he became an overnight sensation.
AAAGGGHHH!!! What in the name of all things yellow is that?!
Fear not, this is no possessed Mr. Men character; it’s Kingsley, mascot of Scotland’s Partick Thistle, and he’s “a nice guy really – just a bit misunderstood” (his words, not ours) and “really very approachable” (we’ll take your word for it, Kingsley).
