“Many say football is the most beautiful game in the world. I think so too,” Pope Francis declared – and he has lived by those words throughout his papacy.
From the streets of Buenos Aires to the halls of the Vatican, the late Pontiff's love of the beautiful game was no secret. A lifelong San Lorenzo supporter, Jorge Mario Bergoglio steadily brought his passion for football to the highest office in the Catholic Church.
When news of the switch was confirmed on Monday morning, Italy's Serie A moved immediately, postponing all matches scheduled for Monday on Monday, with games resuming this evening (April 23.)
It was a touching gesture — reflecting the pope’s deep connection to the sport, which he sees as a symbol of friendship, scholarship and teamwork. “Football is a team sport. You can’t enjoy it alone,” the pope told a crowd of Italian youth, football players and coaches at the Vatican in 2019.
Like most Argentine children, Jorge Mario Bergoglio was immersed in the world of football from a very early age. He played for hours with his friends on the sidewalks or on dusty pitches known as “poteros” in his native Flores neighborhood of Buenos Aires.
But, by his own assessment, he wasn't all that good... in his recently published autobiography, "Hope," Francis said his skills were so poor that he was nicknamed "hard-footed."
Like many in his family, he was a staunch supporter of San Lorenzo, a club founded by priest Lorenzo Massa in 1908. The team won the first Copa Libertadores, the top club tournament in South America, a year after he became Pope. The club's board of directors and a group of players took the trophy to the Vatican.
But for Pope Francis, football was more than just a sport. It was a tool for peace, connection and humanity. In 2014, he organized the Vatican’s “Interfaith Match for Peace,” inviting players from around the world to participate in a tournament.
That same year, he shared an emotional meeting with Diego Maradona, whom he described as the “poet of football”. This came six years before the legendary player’s death in 2020.
During Ponticate, Francis also met with Lionel Messi, whom many consider the best to ever kick a ball, and welcomed a long list of football greats from Ronaldinho, Mario Balotelli, Gianluigi Buffon and Andrea Pirlo to the Vatican for the Croatian national team ahead of Uefa Euro 2024.
His love of the sport has also inspired pop culture. In the 2019 biographical drama film Two Blasts, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, Francis and Benedict watch the 2014 World Cup final together — Germany versus Argentina — their theological differences are momentarily overshadowed by a shared love of the game.
San Lorenzo, who announced last year that they would name their new stadium in his honour, posted an emotional tribute on social media after news of his passing: "He was never anything else and was always one of us. A cuervo (his nickname for a virtual San Lorenzo fan) as a child and a cuervo as a...
Several Serie A fixtures, rescheduled from Monday, April 23, go ahead this evening – making sure it's marked by paying tribute to the Pope who never stopped loving the beautiful game.
