Footix

I've been on a bit of a World Cup mascot kick lately. Last Friday, I wrote about Pique - the mascot from Mexico 1986 and then, earlier this week, I wrote about the Italy 1990 mascot, Ciao. 

After writing about those two, I thought I had finished with World Cup mascots. I didn't remember any of the other ones after 1990, but then something dawned on me.

I did remember the 1998 World Cup mascot. And there's a reason why.

France had a cockerel for its tournament. It bore a resemblance to a well-known character.

Woody Woodpecker, anyone?

The character was named Footix. Wikipedia states that the name was a 'portmanteau of 'football' and the ending "ix", a name suffix common among the Gauls.'

Just like with Italy's mascot from 1990, I didn't know - or may have forgotten - Footix's name until I did some research for today's post.

The above image of Footix is a keyring my mother gave me as a gift during the World Cup. It was part of a set.

Part of the set included a soft toy of Footix. You can see him from two different angles in the following pictures.

His body and side of his head.

And here is a look from the side.

The keyring and soft toy were extras that came with what I would consider the main part of the gift set - a limited edition Parker pen for the tournament.

The pen came in a red case. Footix appears on it alongside the France '98 logo. 

Below is a picture of the pen. The top also has the France '98 logo. The body of it has Footix in numerous poses.

And that's really it as it pertains writing about World Cup mascots. Pique, Ciao and Footix are the only ones I can remember. I have no recollection at all of the characters created for 1994, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018.

Ciao

In a post published on Saturday, I wrote about the Mexico 1986 World Cup mascot, Pique, and my quest to find a Panini sticker bearing its likeness.

In today's post, the mascot of the 1990 World Cup is my focus.

No, I didn't have trouble trying to find a foil sticker of the character. As far as I can recall, I did manage to find one for my collection.

What I do have is quite a random story about it. 

In 1989, a year before Italy hosted the tournament, I went on holiday to Malta. Upon arrival at the hotel we were set to stay at for a fortnight, I noticed a green,red and white statue with a football as a head on the shelf behind the desk. 

One of the cool parts of the holiday was befriending the hotel manager. He taught me a trick that allowed me to get the balls out of the pool table without having to put money in the slot. Most importantly - in regards to today's topic - is he was the person who clued me in on what the football-headed statue was.

He told me he was the mascot for the 1990 World Cup, which was set to be held the following year in Italy.

It all made sense considering the statue's colours were the same as the Italian flag.

Another person from the holiday I remember being nice to me was the rep who looked after us. I can't remember her name, but I do remember that - when she would walk into the room each day before our excursions - she would greet all the families with a 'CIAO!' 

Everybody would shout it back to her.

Why did I mention this?

Well - in a very interesting coincidence, I looked up the name of the mascot. I didn't know what it was called until I looked it up for today's post.

It was named Ciao. 

After finding out its name, I looked for it on eBay. I found many items for sale with its likeness, but one thing stood out the most.

It was the statue just like what was standing on the desk in the hotel. The seller wants £250 for it. 

If I'm not going to pay £40 for a Pique Mexico 86 Panini sticker, I'm absolutely not going to spend £250 on Ciao!

Number 3

An episode from the season four of This Is Us has recently inspired me to accomplish a goal I had in my childhood.

In the popular US drama series, we see one of the main characters - Kevin (as a teenager) - hunting for a baseball trading card that he wanted for his collection. 

Kevin and his mother eventually open a packet that contains the card and then, later in the episode, we see Kevin - now as his adult self - purchase another copy of the card from a specialist.

As soon as I saw the story play out, my mind raced back to 1986.

It was the year I suffered my initial bout of World Cup fever. The cause of this ailment was brought on by being exposed to a Panini football sticker album. 

The '86 World Cup was hosted by Mexico. Its mascot was a sombrero-wearing jalapeno  named Pique. 

Pique was everywhere. 

And I mean everywhere. 

Take for example Easter 1986. Back then, having a Kinder Surprise egg was a rarity for us kids. However, at Easter, we were always given a box containing three Kinder eggs.  Kinder had a World Cup promotion at that time and there were Pique figures, that you needed to put together yourself, inside some of the eggs.

Of the three eggs I had, Pique was in...

ALL THREE.

Bear in mind this isn't like Kinder Surprise eggs now where the promotion might have the same characters but in different poses. This was Pique and, once you had constructed the toy together, it was the same figure. 

My sister had the same deal as me - three Kinder Surprises in the box. Yes, you guessed it. She also had three Piques inside her chocolates.

Even though Pique had a 6-0 run when it came to being a 'surprise' inside Kinder eggs at my home in 1986, his record in my opening of Panini Mexico '86 stickers was abysmal.

The third sticker in the collection was of Mexico's World Cup mascot on top of a shiny, foil background. I obviously cannot recall how many packets of stickers I bought that year. However, let's say I bought a lot.

And the shiny Pique sticker didn't appear in any of them.

I tried and tried, but the search turned into a lost cause. Whenever I've seen the character over the years, I've always thought back to the hunt for the third sticker in that collection.

To highlight just how much 'The Search for Pique' has been etched in my life story, how about this one? My first memory of junior school is - sort of - Pique sticker hunting related. 

When my infant class visited the school to meet who would become our new teachers, I recall looking around the classroom and seeing a Mexico '86 sticker book left on one of the tables. I opened it to the first page and there was Pique in his silver-foiled glory.

It was the first - and only - time I saw Pique in a sticker book that was physically in front of me. All other books, my own and friends, were Piqueless.

Seeing Kevin finding the baseball card he wanted in This Is Us, not only as a child, but as an adult, made me wonder whether I should get Pique as an adult.

It called for a trip to eBay. 

I saw Pique stickers available for all ranges of prices. The top price - from my initial visit - was £40. 

I wanted Pique, but I wasn't willing to spend crazy money for one sticker even if it was to complete a goal I had set myself back in 1986.

A few days after first looking Pique up on eBay, I found myself back in the hunt. This time, a Pique shiny was going for an opening bid of 99p. It was 'used' and had apparently been pulled from a sticker book, but I thought it was good enough for me because all I wanted was to finally own one after thirty-four years.

I set my highest bid at £5. A couple of days later, £3.32 was enough to win the auction. Add to that the postage cost of eighty-eight pence and the full amount I spent on the sticker was £4.20.

It arrived in yesterday's post.

Yes, it has a wrinkle on it and I don't even know if I still have the sticker book to glue it in. However, I am glad I've finally got my hands on it. 

With that said, I still believe that finding it inside a packet would have felt more rewarding considering how many packets I opened in an attempt to find Pique when I was a child.

While looking for the sticker, I came across many Pique Kinder toys. It made me wonder whether there might be somebody out there who spent a small fortune looking for Pique toys in Kinder eggs as a child and was now trawling though the auction site to finally get hold of one.

I quickly discounted that thought. 

Hunting for Kinder Piques was far easier than looking for Panini Piques.