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Pope Francis spoke with great courage and pride about his compatriot, Argentine soccer legend Diego Armando Maradona.
“I met Maradona during a peace match in 2014 and I gladly mention everything he did to help those most in need in the world,” the Pope said in a rare interview dedicated to sport, to the Italian newspaper “La Gazzetta dello Sport “.
In addition, he was “on the playing field a great poet and hero who encouraged millions of people in Argentina and Naples, but he was also a fragile man.”
The head of the Catholic Church in the world added: “I have a personal memory related to the 1986 World Cup when Argentina won the title thanks to Maradona, and I was at that time in Frankfurt to present my thesis, and I did not see the final, but I found out the result the next day, when a Japanese girl wrote Viva Argentina on the board in German. “
“I remember it personally,” said the first pope of South America. “It was like a victory over unity, because I had no one with whom to share the joy of this sporting victory.”
The Pope concluded that he loved soccer and practiced it as a child in the streets of Buenos Aires, and spoke of Maradona’s death, “I prayed for him and sent the family a rosary and a few words of condolences.”
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