Daniel del Castillo González
After 21 years, 207 games, and 125 goals, Lionel Messi is retiring from the Argentine national team.
The soccer player, who represented his country in six World Cups, leaves as a World Cup champion, a two-time Copa América champion, and a legend of Argentine soccer.
But Messi’s history with Argentina also took him to the Vatican on several occasions.
This image came from August 2013, a few months after the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio.
Pope Francis received the Argentine and Italian national teams before they played a friendly charity match in Rome.
Messi and Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon presented the Pope with a small olive tree. And Pope Francis, then the spiritual captain of the world, revealed to them the value of this sport.
PAPA FRANCISCO
2013
In the game, when you're on the field, you find beauty, selflessness, and camaraderie. If a game lacks these elements, it loses its power, even if the team wins.
LIONEL MESSI
Former Captain of the Argentine National Soccer Team
Soccer is huge, and I think, as we said before, it reaches everyone, and it's good for us to set an example on the field.
The connection between the soccer player and Francis went even further. Messi and Buffon were founding patrons of Scholas Occurrentes, the educational network launched by Bergoglio that promotes inclusion through education, sports, and the arts.
When Bergoglio was archbishop of Buenos Aires, he had launched the Neighborhood Schools and Sister Schools projects. And soccer became one of his tools for building what he called the “culture of encounter.”
In September 2014, Messi participated in the Interfaith Match for Peace held at the Olympic Stadium in Rome.
Afterwards, Messi remained connected to that initiative. In 2022, he once again supported Scholas’ Partita della Pace initiative.
And a year later, Pope Francis spoke publicly about him again, although the Argentine pope already had his favorite.
Maradona was a great player, but as a man he failed. He slipped up because of the people around him who praised him but did not help him. Messi is very proper, a true gentleman. But I prefer Pelé.
Messi leaves the national team as a world champion. But his history with the Vatican also leaves another impression: that of a soccer player who, alongside a pope, built bridges to discuss education, peace, and reconciliation.
Both Francis and Leo XIV know that a soccer player is not just defined by what he does during the ninety minutes on the field. It’s also about what he achieves through his influence off the field.
