The EURO 2024 mascot is a bear

Kicking off in less than a year, EURO 2024 is going to see 24 teams battle it out throughout Germany in order to claim the Old Continent as champions. Periods like this typically coincide with the announcement of a tournament’s mascot, and UEFA has recently done just that. A bear with a big head, large eyes, and a full kit surprised children at a primary school in Gelsenkirchen (Schalke 04’s home city) on Tuesday morning, announcing itself to the world as the upcoming EURO’s mascot. 

Fans will have the next two weeks to choose a name for the bear, with four options laid out for them already: Albärt, Bärnardo, Bärnheart or Herzi von Bär. As soon as the name is chosen, the bear will begin its #MakeMoves journey in schools throughout all of Europe, encouraging children to be active and engage in all kinds of physical activity. In addition to that, children will be able to create their own football skill moves and celebrations, thanks to top-of-the-line motion capture technology that will transform their inventions into animations to be used throughout the tournament.

The main aim of the mascot’s campaign is to motivate children to take up the beautiful game. “As a parent, I know how important it is to stimulate children’s imagination,” said EURO 2024 tournament director Philipp Lahm. “With the launch of our tournament mascot, we hope to create a fun and likeable character that will inspire them to enjoy playing football.”

The bear will also participate in educational videos filmed with various European influencers, tackling topics like nutrition and well-being. The objective is to promote a healthy lifestyle and try to instill it into children’s minds from a young age, and schools will be provided with UEFA’s content and resources to do so.

Surprisingly, this is the first time that a European Championship has a bear as a mascot. We have seen lions, rabbits, and even superheroes since the first mascot at EURO ‘80 in Italy, including West Germany’s 1988 rabbit named Berni. A more recent German mascot for a major football tournament was Goleo, a lion designed for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. A very controversial choice - due to the fact that lions are not a German animal and are typically associated with rivals England and The Netherlands - Goleo’s most criticized trait was his lack of shorts. The DFB is set on avoiding another similar fiasco, and thus chose a typically German animal, but most importantly, they gave him a pair of shorts.