Birmingham Legion FC has played professional soccer in Birmingham since 2018, but no one had seen the club’s mascot until this season, since Noigel took the long way home.

“We have had him since 2018, but he’s been lost, wandering around the globe,” said Stephanie Wood, the Legion’s vice president of marketing and fun engagement. “He’s Vulcan’s imaginary friend. When Vulcan imagined him, he didn’t quite tell him exactly which Birmingham, so he imagined him in Birmingham, England. He’s been wandering around the globe for the last few years, trying to get back to Birmingham, Alabama.”

Noigel is a tall, fuzzy yellow character with red hair, googly eyes and black sneakers who can be found at the team’s home games at Protective Stadium. And don’t call him Nigel.

“You can’t just say Nigel, because it hasn’t got the same ring to it,” Wood said, acknowledging that the mascot’s name is Legion spelled backward. “You’ve got to say ‘Noigel,’ with the accent. He will be a main fixture for Legion at all our games and at community events. He’ll be the key, main ambassador for the team, for the kids, for the family, and for pure fun and engagement.”

And education. The Legion is using Noigel as a gateway to engage children and communities with soccer.

“What we have with Noigel are coloring sheets for the kids to be engaged with,” the marketing vice president said. “We have our Learning With Legion program, for which he’s going to be a major focus point. That’s the schools program. We’ll actually have an educational book, a reading book for kids that will be Noigel’s Great Adventure and his road home.

“He is home now, but we need to tell everyone about it,” she said. “We want to explain that he was eating croissants in Paris up the Eiffel Tower, and explain to the kids what that is and where that is. We want to talk about the Great Wall of China that he was on and give them some history and some key points about the country.”

Wood said Noigel’s adventure included scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef.

“We want to talk about the sharks and the marine life and conservation of the oceans,” she said. “He went to the pyramids in Cairo, in Egypt. We want to talk about that, the wonders of the world. We just want to use it as an educational piece for kids. It’s fun and engaging, but it (also) teaches them what they don’t really know.”

Wood said Noigel was a bit of a shutterbug as he circled the globe.

“He managed to get his hand on a Polaroid picture camera, an old-school one,” she said. “We have a ton of Polaroids he brought back in his suitcase with him.

He came back with a suitcase full of Polaroids. He’s had a big journey to get back here.”

That suitcase sparks more reminders of Noigel’s journey as it is covered in stickers from the mascot’s many travels — Bali, Sahara, Prague, Ecuador, Ireland, Barcelona, Venezuela, New Guinea, Slovakia, San Francisco, New York and back home in Birmingham.

“Our main campaign this season is All Roads Lead Home, which is our home kit, our new one for this season,” Wood said. “It also plays into Noigel’s road home.”

Welcome Home Party

The Legion hosted a Mascot Mayhem event for the home opener on March 4.

“All the mascots came to welcome Noigel,” Wood said. “We had (the Birmingham Barons’) Babe Ruff. We had Blaze from UAB. We even had the Trash Pandas come down (from Madison) with their raccoon. We had Vulcan. We had about eight or nine mascots come and celebrate with Noigel for his first appearance in the stadium. It was quite fun.”

But don’t expect Noigel to be at the Legion’s away games, at least not yet.

“He will not, not right now (because) we can’t trust him,” the marketing vice president said. “It took him eight years nearly to get back (to Birmingham). I don’t know if he’d get lost in Charleston or (if) he’d run ragged up in Loudon (Tenn.). I’m not entirely sure if we trust him just yet.

“You may see him, and if you do, well, he’s escaped, for sure,” Wood said.  “But maybe when he’s proved himself, he’ll make his way (to road games).”

The next home game for Noigel is 4 p.m. Sunday as Legion FC hosts the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. The first 1,000 fans through the gates will receive Birmingham Legion bucket hats.