Crusty The Pie: Football fans scoff as English team unveils bizarre new mascot (PHOTOS)
The age-old rhetorical football chant of 'who ate all the pies?' appears to have finally received a definitive answer after English team Wigan Athletic introduced their mascot for the 2019 season: a lifesize, smiling humanoid pie.
Wigan chiefs offered young fans the opportunity to come up with ideas to design a new mascot ahead of their upcoming season in the English Championship and in scenes reminiscent of the public vote which led to a poll decreeing that an English research ship was to be called 'Boaty McBoatface', the vote was hijacked by swathes of pie-loving fans - and Crusty The Pie was born.
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Reports suggest that around half of the votes received contained suggestions that the mascot should be pie-themed, but unlike the the 'Boaty McBoatface' suggestion which was eventually walked back by the UK government, the Latics have stayed faithful to their fans wishes and Crusty has received a very warm welcome from football fans online.
Wigan Athletic's new mascot for the 2019/20 season is a thing of beauty. Crusty The Pie 😍🥧 pic.twitter.com/iRs9WJ0LDi
— Soccer AM (@SoccerAM) August 2, 2019
Wigan have just unveiled their new mascot, Crusty the Pie, and I genuinely could not be more impressed. 10/10 name, 10/10 design. #WelcomeCrustypic.twitter.com/aieA0ivibZ
— Tom Noble (@_Noble) August 2, 2019
We’re gonna get knocked out the FA Cup again by Wigan and they’ll have a pie dancing on the pitch at full time.
— Ben Thatchers Elbow (@Thatcherselbow2) August 2, 2019
Crusty The Pie immediately joins the ranks of the most bizarre mascots in English football, perhaps topped only by West Brom's surreal 'Boiler Man' - a mascot designed to pay homage to the practice of boiling water en masse.
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Crusty appears to just have a job for the upcoming season but if he proves popular (or lucky, depending on your level of superstition) there is likely a chance that he could see his contract extended at the club and he could be entertaining fans from the sidelines at football games for years to come.
We're a big fan of Crusty The Pie. But does it top BOILER MAN? West Brom's finest! 🙌 pic.twitter.com/wIgGG0VHOL
— Soccer AM (@SoccerAM) August 2, 2019
Hopefully no-one has a beef with Wigan Athletic's new mascot - a pieMore than 90 primary schools were invited to submit ideas, and more than half the entries were a pieThis is Crusty the Pie #WAFC@LaticsOfficialpic.twitter.com/OcDnGUxfAw
— Francis Keogh (@HonestFrank) August 2, 2019
Wigan Boardroom:-Right we need a new mascot to entertain our 12 fans.-How about a mascot based on a club legend like lofty the lion at #bwfc?-We haven't got any club legends.....or history-I know, pies we all like pies....#wafcpic.twitter.com/3xOXjQMp4D
— Dan Tust (@DanTust90) August 2, 2019
😀 Up the Loons! Thanks for welcoming us into the pastry-based mascot family 😅Crusty the Pie will be delighted!#wafc 🔵⚪️💚 https://t.co/YiR8gIlrDE
— Wigan Athletic (@LaticsOfficial) August 2, 2019
It remains to be seen how Crusty The Pie will be received by his peers in the English Championship but he has already received a warm welcome from Scottish side Forfar Athletic's mascot, fellow pastry-based snack Baxter The Bridie.
Fans will have their first opportunity to see Crusty The Pie in action when he makes his debut on the sidelines for Wigan Athletic's clash with Cardiff City in their Championship opener on Saturday afternoon.
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