Not only did the draw of the group stage of the World Cup surprise football fans, because on top of that, on top of that, the official song of the World Cup was presented on April 1 and also by the mascot, called La'EEB (meaning skillful player in Arabic).
For those connoisseurs of this world-famous event, each edition is characterized not only by the matches and the enormous effort that the players from each country make on the court, but that living the experience of a world cup involves getting into the culture of the place that serves as the venue and from which all kinds of characters also emerge. representative.
Thus, for this 2022 World Cup, which will be held in Qatar, Laéeb will be the tender character who will represent the World Cup and it is nothing more and nothing less than a adorable flying turban.
“He arrived from the universe of pets full of energy and is ready to bring the joy of football to the whole world. La'eeb encourages everyone to believe in themselves. The time has come to spread the joy of football around the world,” FIFA communicated on its social networks to present it.
For his part, Khalid Ali Al Mawlawi, Deputy Director General for Marketing, Communication and Experiences of the Supreme Committee on Organization and Legacy, mentioned that animation will be a way for people around the world to feel welcome.
“I'm sure fans all over the world will love this cheerful and fun character. The'EEB will be essential in helping us attract fans of all ages to the fantastic experience of this FIFA World Cup.”
However, in Mexico, the reaction from netizens was not long in coming and all kinds of memes soon emerged where they even compared La'eeb to the famous ghost of Gasparín.
“The mascot of the Qatar 2022 World Cup is the scarf that Fiona gave to Shrek as a token of her gratitude”, “Who would say that Gasparin the friendly ghost would be the mascot of the world cup, Qatar 2022″, are some of the mentions that appear on Twitter.
Other users of this social network took the opportunity to place: “I wish those from Qatar put a well-designed and charismatic World Cup mascot”, and then show images of SpongeBob holding a small white scarf in the palm of his hand.
It should be remembered that the first world cup to present a mascot was Mexico, when in 1970 he created Juanito, a boy with a typical hat and dressed in the Aztec team's kit. Four years later, Germany imitated the idea with Tip and Tap, two Teutonic guys who are fans of the round.
The Argentine Gauchito was next and Naranjito was the play of Spain 82, with the fruit personified by the ball. And Mexico returned 16 years after its first event with Pique, a pickle with an Aztec hat.
Italy 90 featured Ciao, an armatoste made by cubes in the colors of the local flag. The animations improved from the United States, with the presentation of the dog Striker, which preceded the Footix rooster from France 98. The three Asian characters from Korea-Japan 2002, Ato, Kaz and Nik, were not too popular, but the lion Goleo from Germany 2006 generated more empathy. The last ones were the African leopard Zakumi (South Africa 2010), the armadillo Fuleco (Brazil 2014) and the wolf Zabivaka (Russia 2018).
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