The China Mail - The beautiful game: Pope Francis's passion for football

From Argentine compatriots Lionel Messi and the late Diego Maradona to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gianluigi Buffon, Francis received the greatest stars of football at the Vatican, signing dozens of shirts and balls from around the world.

He often recounted playing as a young boy on the streets of Buenos Aires, using a ball made of rags.

While admitting he was "not among the best" and that "he had two left feet", he often played as goalkeeper, which he said was a good way of learning how to respond to "dangers that could arrive from anywhere".

His love of football was inseparable from his loyalty to the San Lorenzo club in Buenos Aires, where he went to watch matches with his father and brothers.

"It was romantic football," he recalled.

He maintained his membership even after becoming pope -- and caused a minor uproar when he received a membership card from rivals Boca Juniors as part of a Vatican educational partnership.

Francis kept up to date with the club's progress thanks to one of the Vatican's Swiss Guards, who would leave results and league tables on his desk.

- 'Beyond individual interest' -

Football is often compared to a religion for its fans, and Francis held numerous giant masses in football stadiums during trips abroad.

French Bishop Emmanuel Gobilliard, the Vatican delegate for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, said he understood the crucial role played by football.

"Whether you are an amateur or professional footballer, whether you like to watch it on television, it makes no difference: this sport is part of people's lives," he told AFP.

But it was not just an end in itself -- Francis, an Argentinian Jesuit, also saw football as a way of spreading peace and education, despite the money and corruption in some of its management.

In 2014, the Olympic stadium in Rome hosted an "inter-religious match" for peace at his initiative.

"Many say that football is the most beautiful game in the world. I think so too," Francis declared in 2019.

As early as 2013, addressing the Italian and Argentine teams, Francis reminded players of their "social responsibilities" and warned against the excesses of "business" football.

As with religion, the goal in football is to "put the collective first, to go beyond individual interest," Gobilliard said.

"We are at the service of something greater than ourselves, which transcends us collectively and personally."

- Pele with a 'big heart' -

The pontiff's love for the game inspired a scene in Netflix's hit film "The Two Popes", in which former pope Benedict XVI and then-cardinal Jorge Bergoglio watch the 2014 World Cup final between their two countries, Germany and Argentina.

It was pure fiction, as the soon-to-be Francis gave up watching television in 1990 -- the year the then West Germany beat Argentina in the World Cup final hosted by Italy -- while his predecessor preferred classical music and reading.

Francis never mentioned the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, which took place in the midst of a dictatorship when he was a provincial leader of the Jesuits.

But he dedicated an entire chapter in his 2024 autobiography to Maradona, whose infamous "hand of God" goal helped Argentina beat England in their 1986 World Cup quarter-final clash.

"When, as pope, I received Maradona in the Vatican a few years ago... I asked him, jokingly, 'So, which is the guilty hand?'" he said in 2024.

While his attachment to San Lorenzo was worn on his sleeve, he otherwise tried to avoid taking sides.

In 2022, before the World Cup final between France and Argentina in Qatar, he called on the winner to celebrate the victory with "humility".

And asked once who was the game's greatest player, Maradona or Lionel Messi, the pope hedged his bets.

"Maradona, as a player, was great. But as a man, he failed," Francis said, referring to his decades of battling addictions to cocaine and alcohol.

He described Messi as a "gentleman", but added that he would choose a third, Pele, "a man of heart".

E.Choi--ThChM