Champion the World Cup Bear (Japan)

Description

The Japanese version of Champion is a fuzzy, brown bear with black button eyes and a button nose with the Japanese flag on it. It wears a gold ribbon tied around it’s neck. On it’s chest is a badge with the words “200 FIFA World Cup” on it.

Poem

As host to the 2002 FIFA World
Cup along with Korea, Japan is a
relative newcomer to the
competition. The country first
qualified for a FIFA World Cup
berth in the 1998 games in France.

Collectors note

Champion the Bear was introduced on 4th April 2002.

There are 32 different versions of Champion, each representing the countries that were in the 2002 World Cup. This particular bear represents Japan.

There are two different swing tags for the Japanese version of Champion, an English tag and a Japanese tag. This version has the English version of the swing tag.

Each version of Champion retired separately on the day that country was eliminated from the 2002 World Cup.

The Japanese Champion the Bear retired on 18th June 2002.