Maradona, Messi... and Pope Francis, the most football-loving pontiff of all

BarcelonaWhen he went out to the Plaza de Sant Pere to meet the faithful, Pope Francis He used to smile when someone gave him a San Lorenzo de Almagro jersey, whose club he was a member of with the number 88,235. More than once, he would grab one and fly it through the skies of Rome. Jorge Maria Bergoglio has undoubtedly been the most football-loving Pope of Rome, as a good Argentine. When Argentina won the World Cup in 2022, more than one compatriot joked that he had something to do with the success. In one of the first events after being elected head of the Church, he famously said the phrase "May San Lorenzo win" when asked if he was a Boca Juniors or River Plate fan, the most popular Argentine clubs. No, he was raven, as fans of a club founded by a priest, Lorenzo Massa, are known. Everything fits.

Jorge Bergoglio explained that he had become a fan of San Lorenzo, especially thanks to the 1946 championship team, whose starting lineup he would recite by heart or recall goals he had seen live, such as one by René Pontoni on October 20, 1946, in the 5-0 win over Racing. "La Chancha" He brought the ball down with his chest, hid between two people and lobbed it across the net... it was a goal to put it past Colón," he said, referring to a popular theater and cinema in Buenos Aires.

It would be his father, Mario, a fan of the club from the Boedo neighborhood and a railway employee, who would take him to the Old Gasometer, a now-defunct stadium, to see that team in action with players like "Armando Farro, René Pontoni, and Rinaldo Martino," as he himself recalled. The priest recalled how in 1946 he watched all the home games of San Lorenzo, the eventual champions, where the Basque player Zubieta, who had fled Franco's regime and was key to those successes, stood out. These players would become the first great idols of the future Pope, who for many years would go to the stadium every weekend to cheer on the team. In fact, he used to give a talk to the players before they went out onto the field and prayed an Our Father with the players in the locker room. In 1988, when Alfio Basile took over as the club's manager, everything changed. "I arrived at the locker room and a priest came in. I didn't want any distractions, so I told President Miele to kick him out. He told me he came all the time, that he was a big fan... but no way, I kicked him out and he never came back. Years later I found Miele and he said, 'Remember that priest you kicked out? He's the Pope.'"

In recent years, he didn't usually watch matches, busy as he was. In fact, he said that in 1990 he had decided to watch as little television as possible, although he always had the team's results reported to him "thanks to a member of the Swiss Guard," as he explained. The guard would give him the news of San Lorenzo's great success, winning the Copa Libertadores, the equivalent of the Champions League, for the first time in 2014. For years, San Lorenzo was the only major Argentine team that had never won it, but he would do so with him occupying the chair of St. Peter. "Perhaps he helped us a little by praying," joked the team's then-coach, Edgardo Bauza.

Pope Francis admired Maradona and Messi, of course. However, in an interview with RAI, he surprised his fellow Argentines with a question about who was better. "Maradona was very old, but he failed as a man. Messi is a gentleman, but I would add Pelé," he said. The Argentine priest had no problem acknowledging the Brazilian's greatness, calling him "a man with a very big heart." "I spoke with him, I met him on a plane in Buenos Aires, he was incredibly human," he praised.

Bergoglio would smile and recall how he experienced the World Cup that Argentina won in 2022. He preferred not to change his schedule, as he had a meeting with Alitalia pilots and their families at a time when they could lose their jobs. "At one point, I went to get something, and when I came back, someone told me Argentina was winning 2-0. 'Okay,' I said, but that made me think about something... in other games they had already started winning and they had tied us. So I was a little uneasy," it's hard to say. Although Benedict XVI also followed football, being a fan and honorary member of Bayern Munich, Francis has been the most football-mad pontiff. Curiously, in 2014, the World Cup final pitted Argentina against Germany, the land of the two living popes at the time, which had folded and what was in charge. Germany won.

Messi and Maradona

But in 2022, it was Argentina's turn to triumph, thanks in part to Messi, whom the Pope was full of praise for. However, when he greeted him, he said: "You are the best, but you are not God." He said this half-jokingly, half-seriously, perhaps trying to make him not believe it as much as Maradona. He had met him in 2013, during a reception for the Argentine and Italian national teams before a match between the two countries. Messi gave him a national team jersey and an old photo of Pontoni, one of his heroes. That day, Messi was so moved upon meeting the Pope and greeting him that he cried. The meeting ended with the following remark from Francis: "Have you seen how the delegations left? Those from the Italian national team left orderly and obedient, the Argentines disorganized and chaotic. Well, I am Argentine, and I always remind those who take care of me when I break protocol."

Francis had met Maradona in 2014. The former player always had good words for the Argentine pope, believing he reached out to the poor. And the Pope valued the former player, despite making it clear that he had made mistakes as a man. "It's enough that I know," Maradona admitted. "His arrival to the papacy inspired me to return to religion after many years. It made me feel like an Argentine proud to see that a fellow countryman could do things," Maradona said. died in 2020. Then, the Pope prayed for his soul: "He was a poet of football, a genius who gave joy and hope to thousands of people playing the game." Maradona and Francesc have surely been, along with Messi, the most beloved Argentines of the last 50 years.

The Pope sponsored competitions, hosted teams and players, and gave interviews talking about a sport he always loved. In part, to connect with that child who got excited in the old wooden stadium in Boedo in 1946, and in part because "it is a means to express the talent you have, but also to build society," he said a year ago in a speech in which he praised the good things about sport: "Sport teaches us the value of brotherhood. What matters is commitment and a common goal. This unity is a powerful metaphor for our lives."