The Eredivisie flagbearers recently put their rivalries to one side to celebrate Christmas and the end of the 2023 calendar, with foxes, tigers, wolves and legionnaires taking in the holidays together
Football mascots from across Dutch football gathered together to celebrate the Christmas season (Image: Instagram/psv)
Lions, tiger and bears, oh my!
The Philips Stadium hosted a festive feast featuring all those creatures and more as mascots from the Eredivisie and second-tier Eerste Divisie turned up to see in the holiday season. And Christmas came early for those who are fans of giant, fuzzy animals, not to mention soldiers, jumbo-size children and what appears to be a felon on the run.
Around 25 talismans from the upper echelons of Dutch football congregated at the home of PSV -who are 10 points clear at the top of the Eredivisie - to see in Christmas together. And anyone viewing the photo album will want to be sure they hadn't jumped on the sherry too soon given the scenes could all too easily turn to nightmare fuel.
"Phoxy invited all his friends to a mascot dinner at the stadium," read the Christmas-themed caption. "Because rivalry, that's only something for during the game. Happy Holliday friends!"
The two-dozen or so totems posed for photos around two banquet tables decked out in the middle of the field at Philips Stadium. And the rag-tag bunch raised their glasses high in a show of unity despite some faring far better than others as Dutch football breaks for the winter.
Ajax's 'Lucky Lynx' was front and centre for photos (Image: Instagram/psv)
And all appeared to be well between rivals (Image: Instagram/psv)
The vast majority of the mascots on display are pleasant enough, such as PSV's 'Phoxy' fox, Ajax's 'Lucky Lynx', 'Zwolfje' the wolf mascot of PEC Zwolle, and 'Bikkel', the happy-go-lucky legionnaire representative of NEC Nijmegen. Even 'Loeki de Leeuw', the lion mascot of the Netherlands national team, made an appearance.
But not everyone on show was as easy to abide - nor the kind of club emblem one imagines children will enjoy. Namely the mascots of AZ Alkmaar, which appears to be two adolescent boys, one blonde and fairly innocent, while the other is a ragged brunette who is sure to stop some from getting to sleep this Christmas.
Nonetheless, not even his presence could get in the way of those on show coming together to celebrate the season in style. And it's the kind of tradition one can only hope the Premier League picks up on sooner rather than later.
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