From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player.
Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland.
“Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain, when courage is needed.”
Photo: AFP
The AFA postponed all of its fixtures on Monday in mourning for the pope. A minute’s silence is to be observed at all games for the rest of the week.
The San Lorenzo de Almagro club in Buenos Aires, of which Jorge Bergoglio was a lifelong fan, announced that its chapel would remain open until 9pm each night this week to allow fans to say their goodbyes at a makeshift altar adorned with his portrait.
The club had also planned a memorial mass yesterday and players are to wear a special Francis commemorative jersey on Saturday, when they face Club Atletico Rosario Central at home in the Argentine Primera Division.
A picture of the pope’s San Lorenzo membership card from 2008 went viral on social media with many remarking on the strange coincidence of his time of death in Argentina, 2:35am, at age 88 and his club membership number: 88235.
Argentine soccer great Lionel Messi on Monday led his country’s tributes to the pontiff, thanking him for “making the world a better place.”
San Lorenzo issued an emotional statement and video about the illustrious “crow,” as fans of the club founded by a priest are known, who was “always one of us.”
The steps of Buenos Aires Cathedral, where Francis was archbishop from 1998 to 2013, and that of a church in his home neighborhood of Flores where a memorial mass was held on Monday, were dotted with soccer jerseys, scarves and bunting.
San Lorenzo president Marcelo Moretti on Tuesday said that the club’s planned 55,000-seater stadium would be named after the late leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Moretti said he visited the pope at the Vatican last year to ask him to lend his name to the venue.
“He accepted and was very moved,” Moretti said.
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