Everton better hope they can at least pick up three points against Southampton as this Saturday’s game at Goodison Park threatens to resemble a Hollywood disaster movie with various fan groups planning protests against the club’s owners but it was a very different atmosphere on January 14, 2007 when Sylvester Stallone came to watch the Blues. The actor’s rip-roaring trip brought a sprinkling of stardust to Walton with what proved to be a blockbuster appearance from the Tinseltown A-lister.
Everton’s supporters are certainly not easy prey for gimmicks – this correspondent recalls the Gwladys Street once booing when one of their number accepted his girlfriend’s pitchside proposal of marriage – but there was genuine excitement in the air when the action movie star took to the turf. To be fair to Stallone – who once played the American goalkeeper ‘Hatch’ in the cult 1981 football film Escape to Victory alongside the likes of Pele and Bobby Moore – his Goodison cameo was also a performance he entered into with great gusto.
Invited by his Everton shareholder friend Robert Earl, who owned the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain, to come over and promote his latest production Rocky Balboa – the sixth instalment of the boxing franchise series – Stallone strolled out to the centre circle while the strains of the iconic Rocky theme tune Gonna Fly Now blared out over the stadium’s public address system, enthusiastically waving a blue and white Everton scarf above his head. Taking his bow, while also wearing an Everton-branded jacket, Stallone lapped up the adulation of the crowd as chants of: “Rocky, Rocky” emanated from all four corners of Goodison.
