Argentina cancels matches following Pope Francis’s death

Pope Francis, a passionate football fan and patron of Buenos Aires’ San Lorenzo team, was honored by Argentina’s football organization on Monday by postponing all of their games.

“Argentine football says goodbye to you wrapped in deep sorrow,” the Argentine Football Association said in reference to the decision to postpone games in his native country by one day.

This week’s games will observe a minute’s silence.

The 88-year-old first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church passed away on Monday. He was born in Buenos Aires in 1936.

“Francis was not only a spiritual reference, but also a footballing one, and met with players, leaders and football legends, such as the captain of the Argentine national team Lionel Messi and Diego Armando Maradona,” claimed the organization.

“He never hid his passion for football and his unconditional love for San Lorenzo de Almagro,” it said.

Later on Monday, Messi sent an emotional social media homage to Pope Francis.

The forward for Inter Miami posted a picture of their 2013 encounter to Instagram along with the caption, “A different pope, close to us, Argentinean,”
Francis the Pope. I am grateful that you have improved the world. We will be missing you.

In his memoir, Francis discussed Maradona’s contentious “Hand of God” goal during Argentina’s quarterfinal matchup with England in the 1986 World Cup. Years later, the pope recounted, “I asked him, jokingly, ‘So, which is the guilty hand?'” when Maradona paid him a visit at the Vatican.