Review of the new 2026 World Cup mascots

Everyone gets a Foxina's hug!

Today I have a sports blog post about mascots, I on't have yet tests about European football mascots, only NFL, but today, let's look on mascots of WC.

Introduction

Our dEAr, beLOvEd, AdoRed FIFA gave birth to these three furries anthropomorphic animals yesterday.

And, of course, they are designed to make money for amusement of the public.

* * *

Our patients

If you remembered Cocomelon at the sight of these three, then congratulations, you have passed the adequacy test! (An unintentional pun about the test on the test site).

We present to our attention - Maple, Zayu and Clutch. I don't want to say how stereotypically they were given names, I imagine their dialogue about making them that way.:

• Daaaaang, girls, we have less than a year left before the World Soccer Championship, we need mascots, this is a traditiiion.
• And let's make some kind of symbol that embodies the worldwide popularity of the soccer!
• What are you, you're crazy, football is our everything, the best game, what kind of "Soccer - world sport"?!
• And let's make three mascots - three countries!
• That's our way!
• But it will usually be the same as always, because there are always a lot of mascots of the championships in several countries.
• It doesn't matter who it will be.
• And let's follow the stereotypes - the eagle, the moose and the jaguar.
• Daaaang, Jessica, you're such a genius, you'll get the award tomorrow.
• And also the names are stereotypical - Maple, Clutch and Zayu!
• Jessie, you're on fire, you don't have to come to work anymore, you're a genius.

I hope you didn't experience any cringe as you read this goofy dialogue, and now let's move on to the review of the football zoo.

Maple

The deer freezes me out the most. And also, why do they all have a style that looks like they got out of Crash Bandicoot's games? Maple's T-shirt is better quality than the moose itself. The name is a stereotype about a maple tree, there is no other one in Canada, isn't there!?

His look is like * this phrase was cut out because it offended everything related to him and the world cup, think for yourself, I'm a kind user, after all *.

He's goalkeeper, and FIFA has been using this ball for years in a row, and Zakumi saw it 15 years ago... And, like, he has leadership qualities, but for some reason he's not a captain, even though he has an armband on his horn...

I'll tell Jamie Vardy to do the same thing and put a bandage on his head, but what if Maple is allowed, Vardy is not allowed?

I can't see the armband right away, and I still can't see the goalkeeper gloves, I see the boxing gloves, and it's like Maple is going to beat somewhat, but Canadians are kind, right?

Zayu

I can't remember his name, so I'll call him jaguar, and because of the Russian word for hare - "Zayats" I can't see a jaguar by name here. He's a captain, and he has a bandage not on his horn, but on his arm!! By the way, I didn't mention the stereotypical emoticons attached to these characters.

I can't say anything more about the jaguar except that at first I thought it was a girl because of the eyelashes, although you don't know who's a boy and who's a girl in the modern world...

Clutch

There was a striker, there was a goalkeeper... And our Clutch is a midfielder, and defenders go to the famous four letters, apparently, well, there are 4 positions on the field, but there are only 3 mascots, and defenders are not popular.

In fact, it was Swoop (the mascot of the Philadelphia Eagles american football club) who was fired, and he started taking a banned things, and ended up living in European football, like in Canadian or Australian football.

Poor Swoop...

The head of the Clutch Swoop is very big compared to the body, is it a chibby or something? In short, of all the three, I like the eagle the most, and it has nothing to do with Philly Eagles. Pink crosses are confusing, though...

Animation

I saw them in animation, and you can see the Sony studio effects, and they think she was working on this animation. Oh, no, well, Sony can't come to this? This was clearly done by a lesser-known studio, and the difference between the characters is at least less noticeable in animation.

These are the only beautiful textures in animation in terms of lighting, but without effects they look like the Persians from the game "Toca Kitchen".

The jaguar is all angular in shape, which makes me think of a geometry textbook, the salmon is something in between, and Swoop, on the contrary, is round. Probably to emphasize the huge difference between the USA and Mexico.

The animation is very fast, I understand that it was created for a new generation... But the older ones also want to watch the video, they didn't have enough Subway Surfers gameplay in the background.

Conclusions

The design of the 2026 World Cup is more dead than alive, but I think I will treat my eyes from such graphics by looking at the Elemental movie...

Good-bye to all foxes!