Mascots of Brazilian football sides
Each Brazilian football team has a number of symbols attached to it and is used prominently by the fandom. Among these symbols are the badge, the flag, the anthem and the mascot. While the first three are commonplace all over the world, the last one is peculiarly Brazilian both in its character and its use.
A club's mascot is a cartoon character, often that of an animal, that symbolises some virtue boasted by the team. Most of them have proper names. Usually mascots come in two versions, a "soft" one, which is the official and a "hardcore" one used by ultras and torcidas, which often contain traces of vulgarity or violence.
