Águia Vitória is the

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

of Portuguese

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club

S.L. Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904, as ''Sport Lisboa'', Benfica is one of the " ...

. Before every Benfica match at the

Estádio da Luz The Estádio da Luz (), officially named Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Lisbon, Portugal. It is used mostly for association football matches, hosting the home games of Portuguese club S.L. Benfica, Ben ...

, the

eagle Eagle is the common name for the golden eagle, bald eagle, and other birds of prey in the family of the Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of Genus, genera, some of which are closely related. True eagles comprise the genus ''Aquila ( ...

() flies around the stadium and, in the vast majority of cases, eventually lands on top of the club's crest without the eagle symbol, completing it. On occasion, the exhibition flight does not go as expected, with the eagle missing the landing or flying out of the stadium. Vitória is a

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...

(''Haliaeetus leucocephalus''), trained by André Rodrigues since April 2011. The original eagle Vitória, whose trainer was Juan Bernabé, flew in the inauguration of the Estádio da Luz on 25 October 2003. It was apprehended days later and released in May 2006. In the meantime, it was replaced by a similar eagle with the same name. Gloriosa is another eagle that flies in the stadium, where the eagles actually live. They carry red and white ribbons, the club's colours.

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360° video: S.L. Benfica's mascot gives eagle's-eye view of the Lisbon stadium

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via

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aguia Vitoria S.L. Benfica Association football mascots Bald eagle mascots Portuguese mascots Mascots introduced in 2011 Individual eagles Individual animals in Portugal

See also

References

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