Thousands of Ecuadorian fans came face-to-face with the Rocky statue curse over the weekend. As the Ecuadorian team fell to the Ivory Coast 1-0, many blamed fans who draped the iconic statue of the Italian Stallion in their signature yellow jersey.
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Their actions even triggered the Pennsylvania Tourism Office to officially alert teams worldwide:
“Philadelphia can’t wait to host you! (but Rocky does not need your kit),” the statement read.
The warning came too late for Ecuadorian native Gigio Benavides, who had spent a week hand-making a version of his team’s jersey with loved ones just to place it on Rocky on June 13, the day before the Ecuadorian loss.
But the 38-year-old didn’t know about the other teams that have suffered the same fate after gussying up Rocky in their own team’s unis.
“Rocky is an example of discipline and consistency. He was always facing people who had so much more, but he never gave up. We needed that spirit,” Benavides said in Spanish.
A week before the World Cup began, he measured the statue through online pictures to ensure the shirt would fit.
Five friends, who make school uniforms for a living, helped him bring the yellow shirt to life using a 2XL shirt template.
They left the sides open to ensure the statue’s lifted arms would fit, and his aunt sewed clips on the sides in case more room was needed.
“That was good because Rocky was really, really muscular,” Benavides said.
To top it off, they added Rocky’s name on the back with the inscription: “Dream, transcend, and make history.”
Benavides traveled 26 hours and 3,000 miles from his small town in Loja, Ecuador to Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. But, not before telling his friends that if they saw the shirt, to know that he made it.
He arrived before sunset on Saturday, hours before Ecuadorians flooded the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s steps.
“My only concerns at the time were not offending the people of Philadelphia or getting in legal trouble for putting the shirt on him,” Benavides said.
When Benavides made it to the steps, the statue already had flags on, so he figured his shirt would only add to Rocky’s glory.
It wasn’t until hours later that hate messages began pouring in that he realized his mistake.
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“Now everyone is saying I am bad luck,” Benavides said.
Amid the death threats and cruel messages, falling asleep proved a challenge. But he chose to look at the bright side: “Maybe Ecuador could break Rocky’s curse and set the city free,” he recalled thinking.
By Sunday morning, that hopefulness had turned into a need for survival. Yet, the full weight of the curse didn’t fall on his shoulders until he arrived inside the stadium.
The Lincoln Financial Field, renamed Philadelphia Stadium for the World Cup, was an ocean of yellow, and many Ecuadorian influencers had already put a target on him by posting his name online.
By grace, his seat happened to be in a section where most spectators were not Ecuadorian. He sat between two men, one from Boston, the other from Brazil.
As Ivory Coast faced Ecuador, Benavides felt himself sweating, seeing the score fixed at zero. The continuous tie by halftime made him feel a dose of relief.
“I thought, if the curse is true, but we tied 0-0, then maybe we avoid it,” he said. “Either way, we must break it, because my life is on the line.”
One minute before the 90th-minute mark, Ivory Coast scored, leaving Benavides sobbing on his seat.
The hate worried Benavides, but nothing hurt more than feeling his good intentions had cursed his beloved team.
“I was crying so much that the guys from Brazil and Boston hugged me,” Benavides said. “They keep saying ‘it’s OK man, it’s OK.’”
Feeling like a truck hit him, Benavides stayed seated as fans left the stadium wondering what would happen next. But the storm and the drops falling on his face didn’t allow for too much time for reflection.
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By Monday morning, videos of Ecuadorians offering beer and Encebollado — a traditional Ecuadorian fish soup said to cure hangovers — to Rocky for him to lift the curse went viral.
Other Ecuadorian fans tried turning the curse to their favor and putting Germany’s shirt on Rocky, ahead of their match in New York on June 25. It’s a move the Pennsylvania Tourism Office said on their Instagram post that won’t work, because “the statue will know.”
Benavides himself did not attend, returning to plead with Rocky, but he did walk around the city before traveling to New Jersey, witnessing some of the fans himself.
“Seeing everyone so caught up in the game made me realize how much soccer helps us free ourselves from the heavy thing happening,” Benavides said. “So it’s OK if I have to take the fall, but let’s not forget to still have hope, and send good vibes to our team.”
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