This is such a beautiful lesson from Pope Leo XIV!
Pope Leo just dropped a powerful lesson about the value of teamwork. In this spiritual lesson, he incorporated football, America’s most beloved and popular sport.
At the Church of St. Augustine in Barcelona, Spain, Pope Leo spoke with a six-year-old boy named Renzo.
Just as the FIFA World Cup is set to kick off on Thursday, June 11, 2026, the boy asked the Holy Father if he liked soccer, which led to a revelation about his childhood and life as a seminarian.
As he shared his experience playing both soccer and tennis, Pope Leo explained that he also played football!
“Everyone knows that I now play tennis; I used to play soccer when I was young, and also American football, which is a bit more physical, and I played with the seminarians as well,” Pope Leo revealed.
Pope Leo then said he wasn’t a star player—he played defense and “wasn’t a great goal scorer.”
“When I was first in Rome, where I experienced my first World Cup in 1982, which was here in Spain, and later in Peru with the seminarians, I followed the local teams closely and also played with the seminarians,” he added.
In a success-obsessed world filled with vanity, Pope Leo warned:
“Someone who may be a star but never passes the ball does not let others enter the game—and will probably lose.”
“A bit of sport is good for everyone,” he continued. “We have to find ways, let’s say, to maintain and stay in good health: body, mind, and soul. So that has indeed been part of my life.
“Soccer also helps us remember something very important: that life is not a race to be lived in isolation; it is something played as a team, and we must learn to run together.
“And so, in that sense, someone who may be a star but never passes the ball does not let others enter the game and will probably lose. And so, thinking about ourselves and how to be part of a team, I also want to acknowledge and congratulate everything you are doing here.”
So whether you’re watching football on Sunday, coaching a local team, or just trying to live your Catholic faith in daily life, ask yourself:
Are you playing for yourself or for the team?