Pope Francis meets Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 5, ARMENPRESS. Football legend Ronaldinho met with Pope Francis during his visit to Vatican. “Armenpress” was informed about the aforesaid from Catholic Herald.

The 35-year-old Brazilian star, dressed in a beanie hat with sunglasses hooked on to his shirt, was in Rome as a representative of Scholas Occurrentes – an Argentina-based group inspired by Pope Francis that aims to form links with schools and puts on sporting and artistic events.

Pope Francis said there were two questions one must ask a Brazilian: one, “Was it water or not?” The other was: “Who was better: Pele or Maradona?”

The Pope’s water joke could be a reference to the “holy water scandal”of the 1990 World Cup. During the Brazil-Argentina semi-final it was claimed that a Brazilian player, Branco, was handed a water bottle laced with tranquillisers by the Argentinian team.

Branco had been marking Maradona and subsequently complained of feeling drowsy.