Pope Francis honoured by hometown football team in Argentina
People play football in front of a mural of Lionel Messi, Pope Francis and Carlos Mugica at Barrio Padre Carlos Mugica, following the death of Pope Francis, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 21, 2025.
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 leveler, 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.
BUENOS AIRES
Argentina-born Pope Francis, who died on Monday, is being honoured at his local hometown football 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.
