OBITUARY
Fan 88235: Pope Francis honoured by hometown soccer team in Argentina
Argentina-born Pope Francis, who died on Monday, is being honoured at his local hometown soccer club in Buenos Aires, San Lorenzo de Almagro, where the football-loving head of the Roman Catholic Church remained a member during his 12-year papacy.
Fans from the first-tier Primera División club started gathering from Monday at the club’s chapel to the south-west of the Argentine capital to bid farewell to their best-known member.
“The pope leaves an unbreakable legacy,” San Lorenzo Club President Marcelo Moretti told Reuters. “For all San Lorenzo fans, he was a source of great pride. It is a very sad day.”
At the chapel, fans lit candles near a statue of Francis adorned with the team’s red and navy blue colours.
San Lorenzo fans took to social media on news of the pope’s death to point out that his club membership number – 88235N-0 – coincided exactly with his age and the time of death.
“He died at 88 years old, at 2:35 am (in Buenos Aires, 0535 GMT) and was member 88235. It really caught my attention,” wrote one San Lorenzo fan on X.
The club confirmed the pope’s membership number to Reuters.
A drone view shows the Pedro Bidegain stadium, home of San Lorenzo de Almagro, Pope Francis’ hometown soccer team, in Buenos Aires, Argentina April 21, 2025. REUTERS/Matias Baglietto
Special commemorative jerseys will be worn for Saturday’s match against Rosario Central, Moretti said, with players hoping to secure victory for the pontiff, whose funeral will be held in the Vatican on the same day.
Several other Argentine teams suspended matches on Monday as a mark of respect.
Oscar Lucchini, who runs the club’s chapel, showed Reuters old photos of Francis holding a San Lorenzo jersey as well as a print-out of his club membership card. Lucchini’s colleague Laura Magrino held up a team shirt made in honour of the pope.
‘GREAT EMOTION’
Moretti said he had met Francis several times, most recently last September, to ask permission to name a new stadium after him in the Boedo neighbourhood where the club is based.
“He accepted, with great emotion,” Moretti told Reuters.
Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio into an Italian migrant family in Buenos Aires in 1936, at a time when soccer had already become Argentina’s most popular sport, said author Jimmy Burns, biographer of ‘Francis: The Pope of Good Promise’.
Soccer was especially popular in less affluent neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires through clubs like San Lorenzo, which had been founded by a Catholic priest in 1908 and was Francis’ chosen team growing up.
The club became the 1946 champions, Moretti said, going on to secure several stunning victories during a European tour the following year, which brought the team international attention.
Francis became a lifelong soccer fan despite rarely playing himself in his younger days due to health issues.
“He tended to read rather than play sport,” Burns told Reuters, but he liked watching games live at San Lorenzo or catching the occasional World Cup match on TV.
After becoming pope in 2013, Francis never returned to Argentina, but he hosted many of the country’s sporting greats at the Vatican, including soccer icons Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona. Sport is a great leveller, Francis once said.
Maradona, who died in 2020, said Pope Francis had restored his Catholic faith after they met in 2014. Messi would later be granted a papal audience of his own, from which he said he also emerged spiritually refreshed.
-Reuters
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Spanish fifth-division goalkeeper Raul Ramirez has died at the age of 19 following a collision during a match for his club Colindres, the Cantabrian Football Federation (RFCF) said on Monday.
Ramirez sustained a head injury during Saturday’s game against Revilla, with Spanish media reporting that the impact led to multiple cardiac arrests and left him brain dead.
The RFCF announced three days of mourning and said a minute’s silence would be observed at all matches next week in his memory.
-Reuters
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Former Liverpool and Chelsea manager Matt Beard has died at the age of 47, the two Women’s Super League (WSL) clubs announced late on Saturday.
Beard led Liverpool to back-to-back WSL titles in 2013 and 2014 during his first stint at the club, before returning to the side in 2021 and guiding them back to the top-flight after two seasons in the second tier.
He left Liverpool in February, with his last coaching role coming in a brief spell in charge of Burnley between June and August.
“The thoughts of everyone at the club are with Matt’s family and friends at this devastating time,” Liverpool said in a statement.
“Matt was not only an extremely committed and successful manager, he was also a person of real integrity and warmth, who will always be remembered with genuine fondness by everyone he worked with at the club.”
Beard began his managerial career at Millwall before moving to Chelsea in 2009. He also coached West Ham United, Boston Breakers and Bristol City.
-Reuters
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OBITUARY
Grand master, Danladi Bako pays tribute to the late journalist and football agent, Chris Eseka
Nigerian broadcasting icon, Dr. Nasir Danladi Bako, who masterminded the television programme, Mastesports on the NTA network, has paid glowing tributes to one of the anchors of the programme, Chris Eseka, who was also a former sports journalist and football agent.
In the tribute titled:” A Master Departs for Home”, Dr Bako remarks:
In 1991, at the National Stadium Surulere, after watching a boxing event together, along with Group Captain Brai Ayonote, former Boxing Federation Chairman, I told Chris I wanted him to join Paul Bassey and Sam John as a presenter for my new programme, Mastersports”, scheduled for live transmission soon on NTA 2.
He looked at me and was quiet for a while. I said, “What do you think?”, he replied “But I am not a TV presenter nah”.
I said I will train you, besides even SJ (Sam John) of the Sunday Times is on the show and Paul Bassey.
He then said,”I will do it if you say so”.
“MasterSports” went on air one February Saturday, at noon on NTA 2 Channel 5. Chris became part of the success story.
Always ready to learn, always ready to improve and ever so humble, especially the way he handled fame. He mentored so many sportswriters as well as young footballers and advised even the established stars.
Before 1992, we had travelled severally times together to cover football matches all over Africa, like the Nigeria versus Cameroon World Cup qualifying in Yaounde in 1989.
Same with tournaments like the FIFA U-20 World Cup Saudi ’89 in Saudi Arabia and Algiers ’90 in Algeria.
Chris had the respect of such big-time coaches as Amodu Shaibu and Concord Publisher Bashorun MKO Abiola, and we regularly saw the Pillar of Sports together. Sometimes, without earlier plans, on a normal Saturday afternoon, we could hop into my car and drive to Abeokuta to watch Abiola Babes trade tackles with Leventis United just like that.
In 1994, I arrived in Tunis a day late for the opening ceremony of the CAF/AFCON tourney and couldn’t get a room at Hotel Diplomat, where the team was lodged, Chris opened his doors at room 108 for me to share with him.
I can go on and on about this very reliable friend and brother.
Chris was a committed sports journalist, refined, diligent and professional. When Tony Ubani and Frank Ilaboya of Sportsville gave me an award for Sports some years ago, I dedicated it to Chris.
Rest in peace, my brother. This was very hard to write. Good night, Chris Eseka, one of the Masters!
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