626 days before the start of the first African FIFA World Cup at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg on June 11, 2010, the secrecy of the mascot has been revealed! The Official Mascot, a leopard, has been designed and produced in the host country of South Africa. His name is Zakumi and it has a meaning behind it. The Za stands for South Africa and the Kumi means "10" in various African languages. "Zakumi represents the people, geography and spirit of South Africa, personifying in essence the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We are certain we will have a lot of fun with him in the lead-up to and during the FIFA Confederations Cup and the FIFA World Cup," said FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke.
Personally I do not really understand why they do all of these mascots for all of the major tournaments. Normally I don't even understand what they are and they just scare me a little bit. It is a little satifising that Zakumi is something I can actually recognize and it is kind of fun to say the name. Basically the only thing that I need this mascot to do is hunt down some of the soccer players I do not have a strong liking for, and that also can guarentee that USA might actually make an impact in the World Cup for once.
1 comment:
I definitely agree with your point on how sometimes we dont understand the point of having the team mascots. For me its the fact that some of them are super random and at first we think that they have nothing to do with the tournament itself. But at the same time we do have to admit that they pump up the crowds and do bring the teams together. I mean the two little guys with the funky hair that were the mascots for this years Euro Cup were really fun to watch, as they just jumped around and brought laughter to the audiences faces. The name for the FIFA World Cup is really fun to say like you said and I like it because it truly represents South Africa.
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