Zakumi Zakumi Zakumi the Leopard was the Official Mascot for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He is a cheerful, sporty anthropomorphized leopard with green hair, presented on 22 September 2008. His name comes from "ZA", the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for South Africa, and "kumi", a word that means "ten" in several African languages, referencing the year 2010. Za is a code for South Africa and kumi means ten in many African languages so it signifies South Africa 2010. Zakumi the leopard's birth date coincides with a day known and celebrated as Youth Day in South Africa. The group A match
Mascot This change encouraged other companies to start creating their own mascots, resulting in mascots being a necessity amongst not only the sporting industry but for other organisations The word 'mascot' originates from the French term 'mascotte' which means lucky charm. This was used to describe anything that brought luck to a household. The word was first recorded in 1867 and popularised by a French composer Edmond Audran who wrote the opera "La mascotte", performed in December 1880. [3] The word entered the English language in 1881. However, before this, the terms were familiar to the people of France as a