Soccerlens.com · Oct 23, 2016
Wolf ‘Zabivaka’ chosen as World Cup 2018 mascot
A wolf, named ‘Zabivaka’, is the mascot for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.Zabivaka means ‘one who scores’ in Russian, and the wolf beat off competition from a cat and a tiger in a cosmonaut suit. A student, Ekaterina Bocharova, designed the mascot.
In a public voting launched on September 23rd on Fifa’s official website and on Thursday on social networks, the wolf won with 53 percent of the one million votes from Russian fans, with the tiger (27 percent) and the cat (20 percent) following.
Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldo congratulated ‘Zabivaka’ on its win.
Local Organising Committee chairman Vitaly Mutko talked up the role of a mascot, and was positive about the wolf’s impact.