Journalists arriving in Argentina to cover Leo XIV’s visit will find an unexpected story in their own workplace: a collection of football shirts connected to different popes. The proposal arose when Federico Wals, who is responsible for welcoming and coordinating the correspondents accompanying the Pope, approached Claudio Destéfano, founder and director of the TOP Museum, Templo del Otro Partido. Wals knew the collection and saw an opportunity to include it in the reception for the international press.
According to Destéfano, the exhibition will be installed in the press room of the Marriott hotel overlooking the Obelisk, where it will remain from Sunday through Tuesday. The shirts will offer visitors an accessible and unusual way to explore the relationship between the Church and football culture, during a papal visit scheduled for November 8–11.
Behind the initiative lies a story of patient collecting and a connection forged in Ristretto, the community founded by Destéfano to which Wals also belongs. Long before receiving the request, Claudio had begun gathering these garments as a distinctive theme within the museum. “I was putting the puzzle together, imagining that one day it might be useful,” he says. The invitation gave them a purpose that matched that intuition: showing the shirts to those traveling with the Pope to report on his time in Argentina. In his words, the opportunity “fell from heaven.”
The selection brings together at least ten shirts and reveals different ways of linking football to papal tradition. There are clubs named in tribute to pontiffs, such as Juan XXIII, Paulo VI and Deportivo Papa Francisco, from Solano; different versions of the Vatican team’s shirt; and garments through which San Lorenzo, Platense and Almirante Brown paid tribute to Jorge Bergoglio. Each reaches the exhibition through a different story: an institution’s name, a tribute or allegiance to a set of colours.
Among the most recent additions is an especially curious coincidence: the shirt of the Peruvian club Juan Pablo II College dedicated to Leo XIV. A team named after one pope pays tribute to another on its kit. Destéfano says that the design, unveiled a few weeks ago, is already part of the TOP Museum and will be one of the highlights of this selection.
The collection also invites visitors to consider better-known connections, such as that between Francis and San Lorenzo. The museum preserves a club shirt honouring the pontiff that Julio Buffarini wore in 2013. Pieces like this help explain what TOP seeks to preserve: objects and stories showing how sport intersects with people’s lives and with events that transcend the pitch.
To accompany the exhibition, AMEN, the agency working with the museum, developed a campaign based on ten shirts. Sergio “Tano” Pollaccia and his team used the meeting of religion and football as their starting point. “As soon as Claudio asked me, I said Amen,” the creative professional recalled. The challenge, he explained, was to respect Leo XIV’s visit while retaining the passion and customs of the terraces. The pieces will be released on Destéfano’s social media accounts during the papal tour.
After their time in the press room, the shirts will have a date with the Buenos Aires public. On Saturday, November 14, from 7 p.m. to midnight, the collection can be visited at the TOP Museum, at Bartolomé Mitre 480, during Museum Night, according to the programme announced by Destéfano.
First will come the journalists arriving from abroad; then the residents and visitors of Buenos Aires. A collection that Claudio assembled one shirt at a time will thus find new audiences and new conversations. This time, thanks to a specific request and a welcome expressed in a language familiar in many corners of the world: football.
