ROME: Diego Maradona and Roberto Baggio were among a host of football greats who played in an interreligious charity match backed by Pope Francis on Monday night.

The Argentine pope, an avid football fan, did not attend the match but had an audience with both teams earlier in the day and also broadcast a message on the big screens at Rome’s Olympic Stadium ahead of kickoff.

The idea arose during an audience former Argentina great Javier Zanetti had with Francis last year and. As well as promoting peace, the game raised money for at-risk kids.

The two teams were named after Scholas Occurrentes — an educational entity launched by the pope — and Zanetti’s Pupi foundation.

Pupi — managed by Argentina coach Gerardo Martino — recovered from two goals down at halftime to win 6-3 in an entertaining match.

Maradona played the entire 90 minutes and the highlight of the night was the Argentine legend’s delightful lobbed pass that set up Baggio’s goal. Baggio had earlier set up Juan Manuel Iturbe for the opener for Scholas.

Pupi got back into the match with a penalty from former AC Milan great Andriy Shevchenko, who doubled his tally late on. Tomer Hemed netted the equaliser and Mauro Icardi scored a hat trick.

Martino and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger put together teams featuring Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist players.

The star-studded lineups included past and present players such as Carlos Valderrama , Diego Simeone, Alessandro Del Piero and Gianluigi Buffon.

Paolo Maldini, Samuel Eto’o and Andrea Pirlo were on the bench but did not play. Lionel Messi had been scheduled to appear but was forced to pull out after injuring his leg in Barcelona’s 1-0 win at Villarreal on Sunday.

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2014