CELEBRITY football mascot Kingsley is backing Iceland as the team take on France in Sunday’s Euro 2016 quarter-final.
The spiky-headed yellow idol, designed by the artist David Shrigley for Partick Thistle, told The National that Iceland was his second love – behind Scotland, obviously.
Kingsley will be a wee ray of sunshine to the Euro 2016 underdogs when he cheers them on sporting one of the nation’s replica shirts that Scots are trying to get their hands on before the match.
The country's football fans are so mad about Iceland they are swamping Iceland’s kit makers with demands for the shirts following England’s Euro 2016 defeat.
Kingsley revealed: “Coming from the States I didn’t have a natural team to support at Euro 16, but obviously my first choice would have been Scotland … the less said about that the better! From there, there was really only one choice of team for me – Iceland.
“Since moving to Scotland I have fallen in love with Partick Thistle and I guess we are kind of seen as the underdogs who punch above their weight, just like Iceland.
“The passion the players and fans show reminds me of Maryhill on a match day too, and I’m already trying to get the Thistle fans to adopt that crazy slow clap chant they do!"
Kingsley also said he was desperate to visit Iceland but the fact that he is a sun and reaches temperatures of 15 million degrees Celsius could pose climatic chaos for the typically cold country.
“I’ve never been to Iceland before but have explored a lot of Scotland over the last year and Iceland just looks like Scotland on steroids, which I think would be amazing.
“As a sun, I don’t really know how I would handle the snow, but I would definitely give the volcanic springs a shot to help heat up again after a day on the slopes,” he said.
Kingsley is always up for a challenge and he’s keen to try some of the country’s delicacies.
He explained: “I don’t want to be accused of being a part time Iceland fan, so I’ve done my research. Everyone talks about the food being dreadful but Pylsur (a mixed meat sausage) sounds delicious – not sure about Svið (a sheep’s head cut in half, singed to remove the hair, de-brained and boiled) though. I always try and give everything a go once but that might be too much.”
The sunshine mascot has also fallen for Iceland’s president Gudni Johannesson because of his down-to-earth attitude after he refused to join the French sipping champagne in a VIP box on Sunday, instead opting to sit in the terraces with his team’s supporters.
Kingsley said: “Even despite all the great things about Iceland I still wasn’t completely sure, but when you even fall in love with a country’s politicians I think that shows you’re backing the right team.
“The Icelandic president Gudni Johannesson shuns the VIP box and sits with the fans for matches, that’s exactly what I do when Thistle play so as soon as I heard that my mind was made up – Komdu á Íslandi!”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here