A pair of football boots can be used to play a match. It can also hold a story, become a symbol and, sometimes, end up transformed into a work of art.
That is what happened to ARGIE’s Bergoglio boots, a model created by the Argentine brand in tribute to Pope Francis and now artistically reworked by Patri Valli, an educator, painter and art curator, following a proposal by Claudio Destéfano.
The result is a small sculpture that immortalizes one of the most distinctive encounters between football, Argentine identity and spirituality: boots conceived as a tribute to Jorge Bergoglio, artistically reinterpreted as Buenos Aires prepares to welcome Leo XIV.
The story of the model begins with the very conception of ARGIE. Juan Recce, the brand’s creator, envisioned ARGIE as a capsule in which sport, culture and values could meet. That is why each boot is inspired by an illustrious Argentine and seeks to bring onto the pitch something of that person’s history and guiding principles.
Among them, Francis, the Argentine Bergoglio, inevitably emerged. Beyond his religious significance, the inspiration lay in values that ran through much of his message: caring for others, the dignity of work and protecting the environment. Thus was born a boot intended not merely to bear a surname, but to encapsulate a particular way of looking at the world in a sporting object.
That original concept has now found a new interpretation in Valli’s hands.
The artist says Destéfano’s invitation to work on a pair of boots came unexpectedly and, at the same time, as an especially appealing challenge. She also knew the work was destined for Museo TOP —Templo del Otro Partido—, directed by Claudio Destéfano, where it would share space with a section devoted to shirts and objects associated with papal tournaments and tributes.
That context shaped much of her aesthetic exploration.
Drawing on the Bergoglio name itself and the history behind the model, Valli used the colors of the Vatican and Argentina to create a piece that attempts to represent something extending far beyond footwear: the player’s identity, the sense of belonging to a team and the collective joy that football can generate around a pitch.
But the work went a step further.
For the artist, football could also enter into dialogue with a spiritual dimension. The idea of “giving it your all” thus ceased to refer only to sport and became a way of understanding life: committing to others, working, sharing, being generous and helping our existence leave a little joy and hope with those around us.
From that union of sport and spirituality came its name: “The Soul Is in the Feet Too.”
The work now joins an even larger story. Museo TOP, directed by Claudio Destéfano, is preparing a special reception for nearly one hundred accredited international journalists arriving for the visit of Leo XIV. At Federico Wals’s request, Destéfano assembled a selection of shirts linked to different pontiffs to be included in the international press reception at the Marriott opposite the Obelisk.
Several stories that seemed to have begun separately converge there: the papal shirts Destéfano collected over the years, Museo TOP’s holdings of more than five thousand shirts, the arrival of Leo XIV, the international press and now these boots transformed into art.
Along that journey, ARGIE’s Bergoglio boots take on a new dimension. They were born within a brand that sought to connect sport, culture and values; chose Francis to represent care for others, work and environmental responsibility; found a place among Museo TOP’s pieces; and were ultimately transformed by Patri Valli into an artwork meant to endure.
Perhaps that is why the story has something of a football parable about it.
The boots endure. They change pitches, find new teammates and keep playing.
And this time, as Argentina welcomes Leo XIV, the Bergoglio boots arrive at the papal press reception as art, with their soul —quite literally— in their feet too.
