Bayern Gets Papal Blessing After Roma Thrashing

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Oct 22, 2014

Bayern Munich soccer players give a team jersey to Pope Francis before his weekly
audience in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (Reuters Photo/ Osservatore Romano)

Vatican City. A day after thrashing local club Roma 7-1, Bayern Munich staff and players Wednesday paid a visit to the Bishop of Rome, otherwise known as Pope Francis.

Club captains Philipp Lahm and Manuel Neuer and coach Pep Guardiola presented the football-loving pontiff with a Bayern shirt signed by all the players.

Francis, an Argentinian who follows Buenos Aires club San Lorenzo, praised the Bayern squad for its Champions League demolition job in the Olympic stadium.

“You played a wonderful game yesterday,” he was quoted as saying on Bayern’s website, adding: “Football is good and healthy, and a good role model for children as a team sport.”

Bayern chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who spent three seasons in Italy with Internazionale, chatted with the pontiff in Italian, telling him that the audience had been a “great honor”.

Rummenigge also announced that the club would be donating one million euros in proceeds from an upcoming friendly match for Francis to pass on to a charity or charities of his choice.