Pope Francis spent Wednesday morning not only at his weekly General Audience, but also with a famous team of German soccer players: Bayern Munich.
Bayern Munich is a German soccer club and is the most successful club in German football history.
The team, who met with the Pope during a private audience, donated 1 million Euro to charitable activities and received compliments for their 7-1 win against Rome on Tuesday.
According to reports from the Bavarian club’s Twitter page, the Pope told them, “You played a wonderful match,» The team has expressed that the fifteen minute private audience with the Holy Father was “an honor”.
The club’s president, Karl Heinz Rummenigge, gave the Pope a ball signed by the entire team, a symbol of a the fundraiser they held for charity.
Team captain Philip Lahm and goalkeeper Manuel Neuer also gave the Pope a Bayern team jersey with the inscription «Francis» and the number one. The Holy Father gave each one of them a rosary.
After the meeting, Lahm stated that the «meeting was an honor for us» and shared the sentiments of his teammates who called it an «exceptional experience, one of the best of our lives.»