It may be the best view at the World Cup.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Some believe it is <\/span>literally<\/span><\/i> out of this world.<\/span><\/p>\n Estadio Monterrey \u2014 usually known as Estadio BBVA \u2014 is built in the shadow of the Cerro de la Silla, a mountain which rises 1,820 metres above sea level and is part of the Sierra Madre Oriental range in northeastern Mexico. Its distinctive peaks are visible from inside the stadium, which will host four games this summer, including a round of 32 match.<\/span><\/p>\n It is an icon of Monterrey, and one that has spawned its fair share of myths and legends. Its name \u2014 \u2018saddle hill\u2019 in English \u2014 is said to come from Portuguese conquistador Alberto del Canto having seen that likeness in the mountain\u2019s \u2018U\u2019 shape in the 16th century. But the city\u2019s inhabitants have given it plenty of other nicknames, including the Giant of Monterrey, the Silent Guardian and the Crown of the City (because of its various peaks).<\/span><\/p>\n One story told about its origins explains that the mountain is a fallen giant frozen in time. Another claims it was home to a birdman \u2014 a humanoid figure with wings \u2014 who lived in its caves. More recently, UFO (unidentified flying object) enthusiasts have seized on an unexplained case involving a \u2018witch\u2019, floating spheres and what they believe could be otherworldly encounters.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \n The Giant of Monterrey looms behind the stadium <\/span>(Hector Vivas\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In January 2004, a 20-something police officer, Leonardo Samaniego Gallegos, was carrying out his nighttime rounds on the outskirts of Monterrey \u2014 a five-minute drive from where Estadio BBVA now stands and just below the Cerro de la Silla \u2014 when he says he saw a mysterious figure.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA person fell from a tree, moving as if they were a bag of rubbish,\u201d he <\/span>said in a YouTube interview with paranormal investigator A. Guts Villarreal in 2019<\/span><\/a>. \u201cShe stopped about 50 metres from the ground after falling backwards with her hands like this,\u201d he said, with his arms held out to his sides.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In the headlights of his Volkswagen patrol car, Samaniego Gallegos said the creature\u2019s eyes were \u201ccompletely black\u201d. According to his testimony in that interview, it began to fly towards him as he called for back-up and reversed. There was a blow to the windshield and the figure was suddenly on top of his car bonnet, trying to grab him through the window. He let go of the steering wheel and \u201clost consciousness until my commander came and saw I\u2019d fainted\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n TV <\/span>reports from the time<\/span><\/a> show a visibly shaken Samaniego Gallegos being attended to by paramedics while explaining \u201cshe didn\u2019t have a broom or anything, she was flying by herself\u201d. In that 2019 interview, he said he spent two days in hospital while doctors carried out tests on him, and also claimed that four men in suits had taken away the police uniform he was wearing that night.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It didn\u2019t take long for UFO \u2018experts\u2019 to draw their own conclusions. Mexico\u2019s foremost UFOlogist Jaime Maussan invited Samaniego Gallegos onto his TV show, where he tried to make the link between what he had seen and the Flatwoods monster, a 10ft tall creature supposedly seen in West Virginia in 1952 (Maussan has had various UFO claims debunked, and in 2023 presented two mummified corpses to Mexico\u2019s Congress that he said were \u201cnon-human\u201d, <\/span>claims which were rejected by scientists<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n The regional Nuevo Leon OVNI Club (OVNI is the Spanish word for UFO) carried out its own investigations in the area and interviewed Samaniego Gallegos. In 2006, the group released footage from another of Monterrey\u2019s mountains, the Cerro de las Mitras, which claimed to show a floating figure similar to what the former police officer had described.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cPeople have reported UFOs. They\u2019ve reported spheres,\u201d Tomas Amador, a publicist and member of the group at the time, tells <\/span>The Athletic<\/span><\/i>. \u201cThis is an area where it\u2019s so common that people don\u2019t see it as something strange anymore.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The \u2018spheres\u2019 Amador is referring to are floating metallic orbs in the skies of Monterrey, unverified photographs and videos of which have appeared on social media in recent years. Nelson Valdez, a local weather presenter for Canal 6, regularly shares them to his 131,500 followers on X and says he receives them from the city\u2019s residents.<\/span><\/p>\n #\u00daLTIMAHORA<\/a> \u26a0\ufe0f \u2014 Nelson Valdez (@nelvaldez) June 30, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cThere are certain things where I tell people they\u2019re looking at a more explainable phenomenon,\u201d Valdez says. \u201cSometimes, people confuse certain cloud formations with some kind of flying device. I dedicate myself to observing the skies each day, so I help them differentiate from those kinds of phenomena \u2014 but there are others which undoubtedly don\u2019t have an explanation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Valdez, 39, claims to have personally experienced two of these sightings himself.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI saw these silver spheres moving at high speed,\u201d he says. \u201cLots of people here say they could be helium balloons, but they\u2019re not. They\u2019re objects that don\u2019t have an explanation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Valdez says for a while he thought they could be a rare meteorological phenomenon known as ball lightning, when <\/span>unexplained spheres sometimes appear during thunderstorms<\/span><\/a>. But he says he ruled that out, as these orbs appeared to be \u201cintelligent, because they made calculated movements and didn\u2019t behave in an erratic way\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How about drones? <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf it were a drone, why doesn\u2019t it move even a little bit, when we know that it\u2019s forbidden to fly there?\u201d asks Diana Perla Chapa, founder of the Nuevo Leon OVNI Club, of the 2006 footage recorded by her group.<\/span><\/p>\n Samaniego Gallegos maintains that what he saw was a witch. \u201cLots of people who weren\u2019t involved in my case told me to say it was an extraterrestrial, that they were people from another planet, but it was nothing to do with that,\u201d he told <\/span>TV channel Info 7 in 2023<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve overcome it, but my kids watch the videos on YouTube, and I also watch them. On that day (every year), I get shivers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The mystery, then, remains unsolved. Should visitors to Monterrey for the World Cup be afraid of such an encounter?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNot at all \u2014 it won\u2019t harm you in any way,\u201d says Valdez. \u201cOn the contrary, it would be an unparalleled experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d recommend they go to the city\u2019s natural areas and give themselves the opportunity to be able to experience these phenomena. They are sure to feel that strange and curious vibe and energy which emanates from the mountains of Monterrey.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/06\/12194759\/GettyImages-2215951843-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
Ciudadanos en #Monterrey<\/a> captan una extra\u00f1a esfera plateada levitando y luego elev\u00e1ndose en pleno centro de la ciudad. El avistamiento ocurri\u00f3 esta ma\u00f1ana de Lunes. #UAP<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/bwhW1YZGDa<\/a><\/p>\n