Alfredo Di Stefano may have played Pope Francis

Published on 19/03/2013 00:00

REAL Madrid great Alfredo Di Stefano may have kicked a ball about with fellow Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was elected Pope Francis I last week, when they were growing up in Buenos Aires.

Di Stefano, around ten years older than the 76-year-old Bergoglio, wrote in his column in sports daily Marca that the pair had lived close to each other. “The Pope was probably one of those kids with whom I played football in the street. We put together proper matches with everyone against everyone until it got dark.”

One of Pope Francis’s predecessors, John Paul II, who died in 2005, was a goalkeeper in his youth.