Whenever you go to a top-tier game of soccer in North America or even across Europe, you’re bound to see a mascot loitering in the stands, amping up the crowd, and greeting fans outside of the stadium.
It’s not just in soccer, either, with mascots being a staple of the sports experience across the major leagues of the continent and the top-tier Canadian national leagues.
So, it stands to reason that the Canadian men’s and women’s national soccer teams would be joined by a big-headed character for home and away games – but who is Canada’s national team mascot?
Does the Canadian National Soccer Team Have a Mascot?
Neither the men’s nor the women’s Canadian national soccer team has a mascot at the time of writing, with the closest to having a national soccer mascot coming in 2015 for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Hosted by Canada, the tournament needed a mascot, so they brought in Shuéme the Great White Owl, who was apparently born in the coastal dunes along Hudson Bay.
Canada might be preparing its own mascot for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which the country will joint-host with the US and Mexico, but for now, neither national team has a mascot.
In fact, Canada’s national teams don’t even have an official nickname. Les Rouges is often used by default, but for the 2023 World Cup, Canada entered as the only team without a nickname.
Still, the national team will need more than a unifying nickname and amped-up mascot to assist in the cross-continental Copa América this summer, with Canada out at +1200 just to win Group A in the soccer betting.
Is it a Canadian Thing to Not Have a Mascot?
The lack of Canadian national soccer team mascots doesn’t look to be a Canadian trend, given the abundance of mascots in other sports.
You could look to the teams in the CFL, like the Edmonton Elks with Punter and Spike, or Canada’s sole NBA team, the Toronto Raptors, and its iconic mascot.
In professional soccer, while not a traditional mascot as we know them today, Toronto FC has flown out Bitchy the Hawk to spur on the fans. This season, though, the mascot-less Inter Miami CF leads the MLS odds for the title.
On the international stage, Canada has also been seen to have a mascot on board. The great big moose Komak is the official Canadian Olympic Team’s mascot and will be joining the athletes in Paris this summer.
Do Any National Soccer Teams Have a Mascot?
It is exceedingly rare for a national soccer team to have an official mascot that follows the team around, so Canada isn’t bucking a trend by not having a mascot.
Instead, international tournaments get their own mascots to promote the event, like the floating ghutrah La’eeb for Qatar 2022 and the teddy bear mascot Albärt, who will be bouncing around at Euro 2024.
Of course, there are some exceptions to this. In 2016, Brazil unveiled its new national team mascot, the angry canary Canarinhos, Iran has Yupa the cheetah, and Korea Republic runs out the white tiger Baekho.
Canada’s national soccer teams don’t have an official mascot, but if they did, it’d be somewhat of an oddity.
*Credit for all images in this article belongs to Alamy*
