Dozens of cassock-clad supporters cheered new Pope Francis’s side to a holy 1-0 win, saying they were proud the Argentine pontiff was a San Lorenzo fan.
“I don’t see how this can hurt us,” a wide-eyed Carlos Trucco, 43, joked of this week’s selection of the first pope from Latin America, Argentina’s former cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, a rabid lifelong San Lorenzo fan.
“Sure, I’m proud the pope is Argentine. But I’m much prouder he is a San Lorenzo fan.”
The club’s religious links go way back. It was founded in 1908 by a parish priest, Lorenzo Massa, with the aim of getting young boys off the streets and educating them through sports.
To this day, San Lorenzo fans are known as “Crows,” after the black cassock of the club’s founding priest.
“Now, the main priest in the Church is a ‘crow,'” Trucco said with a laugh among the throng at Colon stadium in the steamy northern city of Santa Fe.
Bergoglio’s elevation to Pope Francis “just thrills me because he is one of the most important figures in the world, and he is a San Lorenzo fan, with our colors, he’s our ambassador,” piped in Nicolas Robles, 33.
The pope is member number 88.235N of the San Lorenzo club, a first division team also known as the Cyclones or the Saints of Boedo.
He was born in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Boedo, where the club was historically headquartered, and grew up in the nearby Flores, where it later moved.
San Lorenzo has won 11 national titles, but those triumphs were a long time ago. With a pope in its fan base, it now has reason to pray for a new big chance.
And it looked like God was on the team’s side on Saturday: it squeaked out an exciting 1-0 win after forward Ruben Ramirez netted the winning goal 74 minutes in, sending the fans into a frenzy.
When San Lorenzo players came out onto the field Saturday, they too marked the week’s very special occasion in Vatican City: they were decked out in special shirts with an image of the pontiff for this game only.
The team is facing the possibility of being dropped down to second division, but after a number of recent disappointments, they are feeling pretty sure this week that they may have an inside track, a chance at redemption.
“Though we always had God on our side,” said a philosophical Jose Luis Laje, 54, “now more than ever, we have a direct representative of the saints on Earth” who might be able to seal the deal on the pitch.
Argentine football fans work papal style on the field
