Mascots have been a vital part of football much like any other sport for the longest time. A lot of football clubs continue to have mascots appearing for home games at their respective stadiums and helping out in creating a lively atmosphere with the supporters.
Often times the mascot will have a connection with the club’s badge or nickname such as Fred the Red (a Devil) for Manchester United or Jay (zebra) for Juventus. Sometimes clubs get experimental with their mascots like Arsenal with Gunnersaurus or West Ham’s Hammerhead.
Mascots have also been used to represent entire tournaments from as early as 1966 when England rolled out Willie the lion (wearing the union flag jersey) as the World Cup mascot. The 2018 World Cup in Russia saw the country use Zabivaka, the wolf to represent their edition of the tournament.
New Hype Dog In Town
In this spirit, it looks like Spain have chosen an animal mascot to represent their team going into the Qatar World Cup. But they have chosen a real live mascot in “Musa” the 4-months-old dog as their mascot.
The pet was revealed as the team’s official mascot at Espanyol’s RCDE Stadium during the presentation of Spain’s new sponsorship with a pet care company.
Meet Musa, he’s Spain’s new national team mascot 🐶 pic.twitter.com/MQ4SZ26Mwz
— GOAL (@goal) March 27, 2022
The name “Musa” in Spanish is a term used to refer to the English word ‘muse’, which is often a person or personified object used as a source of inspiration for creativity.
Musa was seen brought out onto the pitch at RCDE stadium and playing around with the Spain players such as Gavi, Aymeric Laporte and Ferran Torres.
Having confirmed their spot at Qatar already, Spain will be looking to rely on the motivation from ‘Musa’ as they look to build on their encouraging performance at the Euros in their hunt for the ultimate prize in football.
