FIFA Called Him as World Champion in Collecting Souvenirs
The story of a Qatari who has acquired 1,200 World Cup souvenirs since 1930
The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy has opened a special exhibition of World Cup mascots, which includes mascots of previous editions of the World Cup from 1966 to 2018, from the collection of Qatari collector Mohammed Abdullatif, who owns a wide range of souvenirs related to the World Championship, which he collected over the past ten years.
A few weeks before the start of the World Cup, Abdullatif decided to show his valuable collection of World Cup mascots, in cooperation with the Supreme Committee, to share his valuables with the World Cup audience from all over the world in Doha.
In an interview with (Qatar2022.qa), Abdullatif spoke about his love for the World Cup, his passion for collecting World Cup souvenirs, and his aspirations for this unique version of the tournament, which will start on November 20 at Al Bayt Stadium.
Abdullatif, whose holdings include one of the most valuable sets of World Cup tickets, said that his first memories of the World Cup go back to the 1982 edition that he watched on TV, and his interest in collecting souvenirs from World Cup tournaments starting in 2014 when he read an article about collecting World Cup tickets, which caught his attention and gained his attention when he decided to start collecting tickets for all World Cup matches since the first edition of the World Cup in 1930.
Abdullatif added: "I was able to collect tickets for 95% of the World Cup matches, up to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and I also started collecting various souvenirs from the World Cup,
Including mascots, balls, and old newspapers, I now own over 1,200 World Cups related souvenirs.”
Abdullatif also expressed his pride in sharing his collection of World Cup mascots with the fans before the launch of the first edition of the World Cup in the Arab world and the Middle East.
He said, "I hope that everyone will enjoy watching the mascots, and it is great for a visitor to the exhibition to see how the designs have changed since 1966 until we reached La’eeb, the official mascot for the Qatar 2022 World Cup, which is considered the first digital mascot in the history of the World Cup."
About his journey in collecting thousands of collectibles, Abdullatif said that collecting souvenirs was not easy at all, as he faced many difficulties to obtain most of the pieces, especially those associated with older editions of the World Cup, but he was lucky in securing rare pieces from all over the world thanks to the cooperation of His colleagues are in the International Network of Collectors, of which he is a member in countries such as Spain, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Uruguay.
It is noteworthy that the World Cup souvenirs Exhibition is held on the first floor of the City Center Complex in Doha, and receives visitors daily from 8 am to 10 pm, until December 20.
This article was previously published on qatarmoments.To see the original article, click here