A star has been born. Zakumi, the 14-year-old 'green-maned' young leopard who was unveiled on Monday, 22 September 2008, as the official mascot of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, has added an extra flavour to 2010 fever.

The mascot's name is a composition of ‘ZA', standing for South Africa, and ‘KUMI', which translates into ‘10' in various languages across Africa, including Swahili. Zakumi was born on 16 June 1994 - a date and year of significant meaning in the political history of SA. Inspired by his football idols, Zakumi has also dyed his hair green as he felt it would be the perfect camouflage against the green of the football pitch.

The mascot was designed and produced exclusively in SA. The original creator of the design is Andries Odendaal from Cape Town, and the mascot's costume was produced by Cora Simpson and David Mbe of Cora's Costumes, a small company based in Boksburg North on the East Rand, Gauteng, that also created official costume for the 2003 Cricket World Cup mascot Dazzler, according to the Shine2010 website.