A planned new San Lorenzo stadium is to be named for Francis. In Italy, there were also suggestions that Francis supported Juventus since his family came from the Piedmont region where the Turin club is based. Francis’ father, Mario Bergoglio, was a basketball player. Francis met his fellow Argentine Diego Maradona twice as pope. There was a special audience in connection with a charity soccer match in 2014 when Maradona presented the pontiff with a soccer jersey, emblazoned with the name “Francisco” — Spanish for Francis — and Maradona’s No. 10. “I think we all now realize he’s a (star),” Maradona said after another meeting in 2015. “I’m Francis’ top fan.” When Maradona died in 2020, Francis remembered the soccer great in his prayers.