{"id":37357,"date":"2026-06-17T13:52:27","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=37357"},"modified":"2026-06-17T13:52:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:52:58","slug":"merlin-the-duck-donning-an-el-tri-soccer-jersey-that-turns-heads","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/merlin-the-duck-donning-an-el-tri-soccer-jersey-that-turns-heads\/","title":{"rendered":"Merlin, the duck donning an \u2018El Tri\u2019 soccer jersey that turns heads"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-family: var(--global--font-secondary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Merlin, a domesticated duck wearing an El Tri jersey, has become an unlikely star of Mexico City\u2019s streets as World Cup fever grips the capital.<\/span><\/div>\n<div id=\"ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>The duck, owned by street merchant Karla Ivette Gomez and her son Christian, shot to fame after a chance encounter on Reforma Avenue went viral, with Merlin even appearing to pick Mexico over South Korea by choosing a Mexican flag with his beak.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Gomez, who describes herself as \u201cMerlin\u2018s mum,\u201d told Reuters on Tuesday (June 16) the attention came as a complete surprise, adding that she and her family feel \u201cvery pleased\u201d that people have embraced the duck as the tournament\u2019s unofficial mascot.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22848,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-37357","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37358,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37357\/revisions\/37358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}