GREETING OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO MANAGERS AND PLAYERS OF SAMPDORIA FOOTBALL TEAM

Clementine Hall
Friday, 19 February 2021

Impromptu address by the Pope

Thank you for your visit!

I have not prepared an address. I would just like to say that I am happy, and to tell you that sport, and football too, is a path of life, of maturity, and of holiness. You can go ahead; but always as a team, always as a team, this is important.

I want to underline two things, and this is the first: as a team, you do everything as a team. The most beautiful victories are those you win as a team. At home, if a footballer plays only for himself, we say “he eats the ball”: he takes the ball for himself and doesn’t look at the others. No. Always as a team.

The second thing: do not lose the amateur spirit, that is, amateur sport, sport that is born precisely from the vocation to do it. Other interests are secondary, but the important thing is that it remains amateur in spirit.

I wish you all this. I will pray for you, and I ask you to pray for me. And now I give you all my blessing.

Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 19 February 2021