Naranjito (mascot)

Naranjito was the mascot of the Soccer World Cup organized by Spain in 1982. The character represented an orange, a typical fruit of the area of Valencia, Murcia, Seville and other Andalusian cities, dressed with the uniform of the Spanish soccer team and with a ball of this sport under his left arm.

History

The mascot was created by publicists María Dolores de Salto and José María Martín Pacheco, in Seville. In this regard, Martín Pacheco pointed out:

I saw the oranges and I wondered why not? I wanted to avoid the bull and pandereta as a World Cup pet. They gave me a million pesetas to me and the agency; then the Federation sold the rights to a merchandising company for 1.4 billion. Although his presentation as a pet generated more negative comments than praises due to his poor design and lousy symmetry, with the passage of time he was accepted because of his meaning more than his appearance.

He appeared on a large number of souvenirs and merchandising items and starred in a cartoon series on Spanish Television, Fútbol en Acción.

Nowadays, his image has been recovered as an iconographic motif by the generation that lived through the World Cup, to use it in new products.
Furthermore, in the presentation of the 2022 World Cup, a small nod was given to him along with mascots such as Juanito or Pique.

Television

Football in action was the name of the animated series released in 1981, on Spanish Radio Television. The episodes lasted 20 minutes and the central character was "El Naranjito", Official mascot of the 1982 World Soccer Championship.

The series lasted 26 episodes and the theme was football, adventures and the '82 World Cup. Naranjito was accompanied by other characters, such as his girlfriend, the tangerine Clementina, his cousin, the lemon Citronio and his friend, the Imarchi pear robot. Among the antagonistic characters were Zruspa and her children, the Cocos.