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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La Liga giants, Real Madrid, have paid tribute to two prominent Argentines who are linked with football and the club.
They are Pope Francis and Hugo Gatti. In a statement issued, the club remarked: “Real Madrid has wanted to pay tribute to two great figures who have left us in the last few hours: Pope Francis and Hugo Gatti.”
The club issued the statements expressing sadness over the recent losses.
Real Madrid highlighted the dimension of the Pope’s legacy, emphasising his tireless fight for the underprivileged and his commitment to solidarity.
Real Madrid expressed the value of the Argentine Pope’s legacy.
“During his pontificate, marked by the dimension of his great legacy, Pope Francis has represented an enormous spirit of solidarity and support for the most underprivileged and vulnerable people.”
It is an emotional message that once again reflects that the club transcends the sports field.
Pope Francis was a great soccer fan. His team was San Lorenzo de Almagro, and he never hid his admiration for Diego Maradona and Leo Messi.
Real Madrid has also bid farewell to Hugo Orlando ‘Loco’ Gatti, the legendary Argentine goalkeeper. Gatti passed away this Sunday at 80 years old due to complications after a hip surgery.
Gatti, although he never played in Spain, was a fervent supporter of Real Madrid. Throughout his career, he defended the white club with passion, especially through the media.
Despite his Argentine origin, “Loco” Gatti always showed his admiration for the Madrid team and its president, Florentino Pérez. His interventions on El Chiringuito are remembered. Always defending Real Madrid and Florentino Pérez, for whom he felt admiration.
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It was not just the Pope that Argentina lost during the Easter holiday; the country also lost one of its legendary footballers, Hugo Gatti, on Sunday.
Gatti was nicknamed El Loco or ‘The Madman’ because of his outspoken character and eccentric play style.
He made more than 350 appearances for Argentinian giants Boca Juniors and has been credited as being the first goalkeeper to wear gloves.
He was part of the Argentina side that competed at the 1966 World Cup in England and made 18 appearances in all for the three-time.
Recent reports claimed that Gatti took ill after a recent hip surgery.
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Argentina’s football association postponed all fixtures on Monday to mourn Pope Francis, an ardent fan of the game and supporter of Buenos Aires’ San Lorenzo team.
“Argentine football says goodbye to you wrapped in deep sorrow,” the Argentine Football Association said of the decision to delay games in his homeland by a day.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1936, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church died on Monday, aged 88.
“Francis was not only a spiritual reference, but also a footballing one, and met with players, leaders and football legends, such as the captain of the Argentine national team, Lionel Messi and Diego Armando Maradona,” the association said.
“He never hid his passion for football and his unconditional love for San Lorenzo de Almagro,” it added.
In a memoir, Francis spoke of Maradona’s controversial “Hand of God” goal in Argentina’s 1986 World Cup soccer quarter-final against England. When Maradona visited him at the Vatican years later, “I asked him, jokingly, ‘So, which is the guilty hand?’” the pope recalled.
-Reuters
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