With the organization of Catholic aid organizations, many important stars of the football world came together in a special match to both call for peace in the world and to commemorate the former legendary Argentine player Diego Armando Maradona, who passed away about two years ago.
Before the whistle, the white team captain Ronaldinho and the blue team captain Ciro Ferrara were throwing soil at the olive tree, and the message “No to war” was often given.
In the match played with the slogan “We play for peace”, the white team, coached by Gianluigi Buffon, competed against the blue team led by Lola Maradona.
Vincent Candela, Eric Abidal, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Ivan Rakitic, Ronaldinho, Hugo Almeida, Hristo Stoickov and Shota Arveladze also played for the white team.
In the blue team, names such as Sebastian Frey, Ciro Ferrara, Diego Perotti, Gökhan İnler, Luigi Di Biagio, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Antonio Di Natale played.
The blue team won the match 4-3.
Before the match, the messages sent by star football players such as Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi, Ryan Babel, Paulo Dybala for this competition were also broadcast on the scoreboard in the stadium.
In the meantime, Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of the Catholics, accepted the football players who played in the special match and the organizing committee before the match.
Pope, in the meeting, said that it is important for the players from different parts of the world to come together for this match and call for peace.