Phang was born a normal snake on the banks of the Delaware River. He only ever had one dream: To play soccer. He loves the game and tries to play but… he’s a snake so he has trouble kicking the ball!Â
One day, Phang finds a Union flag inspired by the Join or Die flag. His mother tell him that his great, great, great, great, great grandfather posed for Ben Franklin when Ben drew the original cartoon snake on the flag. BEN FRANKLIN! That’s it!
Inspired by Benny, Phang decides to try his own experiment the next time a thunderstorm hits Philadelphia. He comes to Subaru Park with a soccer ball and an old pair of soccer boots with metal cleats and a kite. He ties the ball and the boots to the kite and holds on as the storm approaches. This is so dangerous and Phang should never have been out in a storm alone!
Lightning strikes his kite and electricity sizzles down the kite string. Phang leaps in the air and, in a puff of blue smoke, he’s gone! All that is left is a metallic egg that looks like a bit like a soccer ball. A hungry fox bats the egg around and it rolls into Subaru Park, where a mysterious but friendly animal-loving employee puts it in their car and drives it to the Philadelphia Zoo.
The zoo loves all animals, but they don’t recognize this strange, metallic egg. It looks like a reptile egg but… only a dinosaur would lay an egg this large and dinosaurs haven’t existed for millions of years!Â
The Union know that Subaru Park is a magical place, so they check in on the egg every day. All the Philadelphia Zoo can say is that it’s big, and it’s growing even bigger!
One day, the zoo calls the Union and says the egg is starting to hatch!
Philadelphia Union captain Alejandro Bedoya desperately wants to know what is inside the egg, so along with the rest of the Union and a large group of children he heads down to the zoo.
As the egg’s shell cracks, a zoo scientist rushes in with incredible news: The soccer boots Phang tied to the kite had traces of human DNA on them, and the lightning strike combined that human DNA with Phang’s snake DNA! Now everybody is staring at the egg and wondering what could possibly come out!Â
The shell breaks…
Blue smoke rolls and billows out of the egg…
And then a snake walks out of the egg and waves his arms in the air to greet Ale Bedoya and all the children that came to see him!
It’s Phang, but now he has arms, legs, and a super-rad mohawk!
One of the children throws Phang a soccer ball. He tries to juggle it, but his legs are still too new to work well. Bedoya juggles instead, and Phang runs to hug and high five the kids as they cheer for him.Â
On that day, Phang made a promise to be the biggest, best, and most dedicated Union soccer fan in the world… and to get juuuust a bit better at soccer each and every day.Â
Now he wakes up in Subaru Park and happily spends his days teaching soccer, playing soccer, and making new friends.Â
If you see him, come say hello!