Share any interesting stories regarding animals in soccer. The national team of Finland's nickname commonly used in Finland is "Huuhkajat" (Eurasian eagle owls). This originates from an eagle-owl named Bubi living near the Helsinki Olympic Stadium. He made his first appearance in a football game in 2007 in a match between Finland and Belgium, helping Finland win 2-0. Bubi was named Helsinki's "Resident of the Year" in 2007 and to the surprise of spectators, visited his own award ceremony on the stadium. I wonder whether in certain countries football spectators are allowed to bring pets (dogs, cats etc.) into the stadium..
the quero-quero is a bird who normally lives in fields. in brazil they are very common. when the female have a nest with eggs, they protect the nest attacking anything near http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=_d-nnt9b8n8 in other cases the players shoot the ball in one quero-quero acidentally.
Wow, this image with the owl is simply beautiful. I don't have any facts to tell, but my cat plays a mean soccer game. With himself, most of the time.
Although a bad thing, one of the weirdest and saddest is what happened to Chic Brodie. A dog collided with him during a game and shattered his kneecap ending his career. Couldnt find the specific video but it shows it here (As well as others) [youtube]Kynn6RkzfPU[/youtube]
Much more impressive is this Elephants taking part in a penalty shootout [youtube]6sP09MejTcA[/youtube] Even better - an elephant doing ball tricks! [youtube]p9PkqAhmBY8[/youtube]
I've also read a book by Alex Bellos called Futebol: Soccer the Brazilian Way. He describes this game called Footbull where people play football on a pitch that has real bulls on it that have to be avoided! Sounds crazy but it is true!
It was at the final of the 1969 Rio de Janeiro Champioship. It had been four years Flamengo didn't beat Botafogo, whose rooters despectively called the rivals' fans 'urubus' ('urubu' = 'vulture'). Some Fla friends got together, captured an 'urubu' & freed him in the stadium during the game. Conclusion: Fla 1 x 0 Botafogo & the 'urubu' officially taken to the post of Flamengo symbol to our days. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChgJOMGdTxI&feature=related"]YouTube- URUBU REI[/ame] Footage in this clip is historical: you're watching there the authentic, the genuine, 'inaugural' urubu.