Meeting the players

At noon today in the Sala Clementina of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis received in audience the delegations of the Italian and Argentinian National Soccer teams who will participate in a friendly match that will be held in his honour tomorrow at the Olympic Stadium in Rome.

On behalf of the soccer players, Doctor Giancarlo Abete, President of the Italian Football Federation and Mister Julio Humberto Grondona, President of the Association Fitbol Argentino, presented greetings to the Holy Father.  Then the Pope addressed the players.

Address of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

to the Italian and Argentinian soccer players

Dear friends,

In Italian

I thank you for this visit, during the friendly match between the national football teams of Italy and Argentina. It will be a little difficult for me to cheer, but fortunately it is a friendly match ... and that it is really so, I hope!

I thank the leaders of the Italian Football Federation and those of the Argentine Federation and I greet the athletes of the two National Teams.

Dear players, you are very popular: people follow you a lot, not only when you are on the field but also when you are off the field. Yours is a social responsibility! Let me explain: during a game, when you are on the field, you find beauty, generosity and camaraderie. If a player is missing, your team has less strength, even if you win. There is no place for individualism, but all your efforts are for the good of the team. Perhaps these three things - beauty, generosity and camaraderie – can be summarized in a sports term that you should never forget: amateurs, dabblers. It is true that yours are national and international professional sport organizations, and it must be so, but this professional dimension should never leave behind the initial vocation of an athlete or a team: to be amateurs, beginners. A sportsman, although professional, when he has cultivated this dimension of amateur, is good for the company, building the common good from the values ​​of selflessness, of camaraderie and of beauty.

And that leads you to think that, more important than being champions, you are men, human beings, with your strengths and your flaws, with your hearts and your ideas, your aspirations and your problems. And then, even if you are famous, always remain men, in sports and in life: be men first of all, bearers of humanity.

To you the leaders of these groups, I would like to provide a word of encouragement for your work. Sports are important, but it must truly be sports! Football (soccer), like some other disciplines, has become a big business! Work hard at not losing the sporting character of the game. Also, promote this attitude of amateurs, and you will eliminate the danger of discrimination. When sports teams have this attitude, the stadium is enriched in humanity, violence disappears as the players in turn look toward their families in the stands.

In Spanish

I remember going on family outings to Gasometro, leaving families, dads, moms and their children. We returned home happy, of course, especially during the summer of 1946!   See if any of you can score a goal like Pontoni did … go ahead … right?  I greet in a special way all the managers and the Argentine players.  Thank you for your visit; it’s a real pleasure for me.  I would ask you to accept your sport as a gift from God, an opportunity to bring your talents to fruition but also a responsibility.  Dear players, I would remind you that your behaviour, both on and off the field, is a reference for the way you should live your lives.   Last Sunday, I spoke by telephone with some guys from a group who wanted to say hello.  I chatted for half an hour with them and of course the biggest issue for them was the match tomorrow.   We spoke of many of you, and they said, this one is good for this, this one for that, this one for this.  You are examples, points of reference.  The good that you do is impressive.  With your conduct, your games, your good values, people admire you.  Take this opportunity to do good for others.  Though you may not realize it, there are many people who look up to you with admiration; you are role models, for good or for bad.  Always be aware that you give an example of loyalty, respect and altruism.

You are also architects of understanding and of social peace, things that we need so much.  You are points of reference for many young people and role models of values for life.  I have confidence in all the good that you can accomplish.

In Italian

Dear friends, I pray for you, that you may pursue this noble vocation of sport. May the Lord bless you and keep all of you close to the Virgin Mother. And, please, I ask you to pray for me, that I too, in the field in which God has placed me, might play an honest and courageous game for the sake of all of us. Thank you.