Jorge Bergoglio, a ‘hard leg’ fanatics of St. Lorenzo who became potato

To remember childhood in Argentina usually includes a scene where children are running behind a ball, even if it rags. Jorge Bergoglio He is a ‘young’ neighborhood of the Buenos Aires of Flores, a football fan and San Lorenzo fan, but it’s a ‘hard leg’: he’s not playing well. “I always liked to play football, no matter if it wasn’t so good. In Buenos Aires, the ones I called them ‘hard leg.

The “happy” footballer despite being a ‘Hard Pawa’, born on December 17, 1936 and died at 7.35 hours (5.35 GMT) on Monday at his residence at Santa Marta House, became the highest authority of the Catholic Church in 2013.

In a rare gesture among the residents of the San Pedro seat, Bergoglio showed his love for football from the beginning, he received the Holy See in delegations of teams around the world and greeted, with special effectiveness, how many parishioners came out to meet Argentina’s t -shirts and, of course, of San Lorenzo. Because that ‘hard leg’ was a club follower founded in 1908 by a priest, Father Lorenzo Massa.

While playing at El Potrero (vacant lot), Bergoglio’s boy dreamed of intentionally attacking Rinaldo Martino, René Pontoni and Armando Farro, a striker who uttered throughout his life, such as the remaining eleven ‘cyclone’ of 1946 -Champion in Argentina and the protagonist of an inevitable span and pic. That he fell in love with his father and Portugal-, whose team fell in love with his father who fell in love with his father, Portugal. Gasometer, old ‘cuervo’ stadium.

“I saw most of the matches in the 1946 championship house, that we would win a few days before I was 10 and, more than 70 years later, I was in the group as if yesterday: Blazina, Vanzini, Basso, Zubieta, Greco, Colombo, Imbelloni, Farro, Martino, Silva … the ten magnificent.

San Lorenzo moved from that court to the new gasometer, currently possessing a statue of Francisco at his museum, where he appears to be dressed in Cassock, the slave and the papal solid, while a Barca scarf surrounds his neck. If everyone obeys as planned, the new Barca Entity court – on the land of the old gasometer – will be named Pope Francis, something, he admits, he is not excited.

San Lorenzo won COPA Libertadores in 2014

After the work -made San Lorenzo of Forties, Bergoglio held the football sky on August 13, 2014, when his beloved team won the Copa Libertadores, the maximum continent trophy in America. Matías Lammens, president of the club between 2012 and 2019, explained to EFE on the occasion of the tenth anniversary (2024) that a Barca delegation wore a trophy in the Vatican so that Francisco was considering him and the goalkeeper did not believe Sebastián Torrico “took his strokes and his dad didn’t believe it.”

“I remember that while we were waiting for him, I asked one of his carers if he looked at the games and they told me not because of the difference in time, but to find out the result of the final he had stood around 4am,” said the former leader.

As a good Argentine, Bergoglio not only enjoyed the successes of his team, but also of albiceleste, where he saw three World Cups: Argentina 1978, Mexico 1986 and Qatar 2022. In another book about Bergoglio, ‘Life: My Story by History’ (2024), reported by the Philippine Italy, Fabio Marhese reported Fabio Marhese, according to Fabio Marhese Marhese, according to Fabio Marhese Marhese, according to Fabio Marhese Marhese, Fabio Marhese reported Fabio Marhese, according to Fabio Marhese Marhese, according to Fabio Marhese Marhese, according to Fabio Marhese Marhese, according to Fabio Marhese Marhese, Fabio Marhese reported Fabio Marhase Francisco, his team’s memory, the team Diego Armando Maradona, who, years later, could ask the person what “the increased hand” was on the goal against England immortal as ‘God’s hand’.

Maradona says she is a poet on the farm

From ’10’, Francisco taught in 2021 in an interview with the Gazzeta Dello Sport that “on the field is a poet, a great champion that brings joy to millions of people, in Argentina as in Naples”, though he said the person he met in 2014 “is very funny.” Farly Omar Sivori’s son, the first ‘golden kid’ -before nickname is for Maradona -, Francisco received the Vatican on football idols, such as Gianluca Buffon or Lionel Messi.

In addition to the ‘hard leg’ playing football, Bergoglio performed basketball and always defended the good of the sport as a way for social change, something similar to Father Massa’s inspiration when he founded the San Lorenzo Club.

In that sense, in 2017, Francisco recorded a message for its broadcast during the NFL Superbowl, held that year in Houston, where he wanted the competition to be “a sign of peace, friendship and unity for the world.”

“By participating in a sport, we are able to go beyond our selfish interests and learn in a healthy way to sacrifice and grow honesty and respect for policies,” he said in his speech. And, followed by that line, he often uses sports metaphors to his audiences to approach his parishioners, when speaking “Lord’s disciples” as “players” and “teams”; Or refer to the “honest and brave party” that he needs to play as a pontiff.