User:Verordz79/Partido Interreligioso por la Paz

The Soccer Match for Peace is a sporting and interreligious event, which brings together the most important professional soccer players and their most renowned legends on the field of play.

The event is promoted by H.H. Pope Francis, and its main objective is to send, at key moments, a message of peace and unity, that from sport and with the support of its greatest figures and the Holy Father, can reach the entire world.

Players from all over the world, from different religious confessions and beliefs, are the engine that gives life to this event that helps sustain the activities and initiatives that the Pontifical Scholas Occurrentes Movement (created by the S S Pope Francis) develops in five continents.

Previous editions of the event were held at the Olympic Stadium in Rome; on September 1st 2014 and on October 12th 2016.

The 100 stars that participated in them helped make the event the most important of its kind ever held; capturing worldwide attention and of international press that published news of the event in 27 languages.

Some of the stars that made the Interreligious Soccer Match for Peace possible were among others, Diego Amando Maradona, Javier Zanetti, Francesco Totti, Ronaldinho, Del Piero, Gianluiggi Buffon, Paolo Maldini, Andrea Pirlo, Diego Simeone, Javier Mascherano, Roberto Baggio, Samuel Etoo, David Trezeguet, Robert Pires, Carlos Valderrama y Andriy Shevchenko.

1rst edition: “Partita per la Pace”
The first edition of the event what’s called “Partita per la Pace”, “Soccer Match for Peace” in English, and took place on September 1st 2014, at Rome´s Olympic Stadium.

The event was fostered by H.H Pope Francis, and by recognized soccer legends, mainly by Diego Armando Maradona y Javier Zanetti.

This first edition of the event was broadcast live by Radiotelevisione Italiana RAI, and the funds raised were destined to Scholas Occurrentes Pontifical Foundation and the projects driven by it in 5 different continents, and to Pupi Foundation, for the project “An alternative life” for the creation of a network of schools for limited resources kids in Buenos Aires City.

The first edition was the “first interreligious soccer match for peace in the world”, and it was proposed as “an historic event, based on spirituality, fraternity and sports excellence, in the name of dialogue between peoples, for world peace”.

The initiative was inspired by a conversation that took place in April 2013 between the soccer player Javier Zanetti and the pope, in which the pontiff conveyed the idea of ​​organizing the match. It was promoted by the ONGs PUPI Foundation and Scholas Occurrentes foundation, a global network of schools promoted by Pope Francis, through the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

The Pope's intention was to dedicate the first edition of the event with a match for Israel, Palestine and Gaza, held in the Olympic stadium in Rome in an inter-religious meeting.

On that occasion, the event featured a musical opening show performed by Martina "Tini" Stoessel, who in those years played the well-known character in the Disney Channel youth TV series "Violetta". The artist sang the Italian version of the song "In my world" and a cover of John Lennon, "Imagine", where she got very emotional and brought to tears because it was the first time she did it in a stadium. "Sport is a tool to communicate the values that promote the good of the human person and help build a more peaceful and fraternal society. Let's think about loyalty, perseverance, friendship, sharing and solidarity.""We will bring together soccer players of all religions to make them understand, with a symbolic gesture, that it is possible to build a world in peace, made of dialogue, respect for others, for those who, even if they have ideas different from mine, are not my enemies, but an opportunity for growth and wealth."

2nd edition Soccer Match for Peace
The second edition of the Soccer Match for Peace was held on October 12th 2016, at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. The event was promoted by S.S. Pope Francis and by Diego Armando Maradona in order to bring a message of peace to the entire world.

This second edition of the event was broadcast live on Argentine Public TV and the funds raised were destined to the Scholas Occurrentes Pontifical Foundation and the projects it promotes on 5 continents, and to the Italian organizations UNITALSI (Italian National Union of Transport for the Sick in Lourdes and International Shrines) and an AMLIB (Non-Profit Organization for Love and Freedom).

Proffesional stars and legends from the world of football participated in the event, such as Diego Maradona, Francesco Totti, Ronaldinho, Cafú, Robert Pires, Hernán Crespo, Edgard Davis, among others.

Prior to the match, H.H. Pope Francis greeted all the players at the Vatican, where he thanked them for their support to the cause and for participating in the event. Likewise, he also blessed the Olive Tree of Peace that was later planted at Rome´s Olympic Stadium by recognized spiritual leaders of different religious confessions, before the match´s kick off.

Squads:

Scholas Occurrentes: Faryd Mondragón, Vincent Candela, Nicolás Burdisso, Cafú, Aldair, Rodrigo Taddei, Federico Fazio, Diego Maradona, Diego Maradona Jr., Francesco Totti, Angelo Carbone, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Horacio Erpen, Diego Perotti, Fernando Cavenaghi, Carlos Hermosillo, Bojan Krkic, Antonio Di Natale, Juan Iturbe y Leandro Paredes. DT: Fabio Capello.

The League for Peace: Albano Bizarri, Gianluca Zambrotta, Gonzalo Rodríguez, Rafael Márquez, Eric Abidal, Manolo Sanchís, Robert Pires, Edgard Davis, Juan Sebastián Verón, Gonzalo Verdejo, Rui Costa, Jiayi Shao, Víctor Sánchez, Sergio Conceicao, Felipe Anderson, Claudio López, Ronaldinho, Hernán Crespo, Frederic Kanoute, Julen Guerrero y Ciro Immobile. DT: Aitor Karanka.

3rd edition: "We Play for Peace"
The 3rd edition of the Soccer Match for Peace that bears the name "We Play for Peace", and will take place on October 10 2022, will also feature a tribute to Diego Armando Maradona who was one of the main promoters of the previous editions of the event along with S.S. Pope Francis.

On May 19th 2022, "We Play for Peace" was launched at the Vatican, led by H.H. Pope Francis along with soccer players and legends Ronaldinho, Maxi Rodríguez and Dani Alves and with the support of many other world soccer stars.

The match will take place on October 10 (the 10th of the 10th), honoring the expressed wish of Diego Armando Maradona, who was captain of the Scholas team in previous editions. Pope Francis: "When we play as a team, competition, instead of being war, is the seed of peace".

The event will be in of the educational programs of the Pontifical Scholas Occurrentes Movement, created by Pope Francis and whose mission is to link technology, art and sports to promote education and achieve the integration of all communities, responding to the call of creating a "culture of encounter" by bringing together young people in an education that generates meaning.

At the launching event, the athletes presented the Pope with an emotional video of support to the match, in it - and as in the origin of Scholas - the message of their sports ambassadors Lionel Messi and Gianluigi Buffon was present, along with other world soccer stars such as Luis Suárez, Ángel Di María, José Mourinho, Iván Rakitic among others.

At this particular moment in history, the most representative players in world football are relaunching this new sporting celebration calling for Peace and hoping to fulfill the wish of “The golden boy”, holding it on such a special date for him.

The video released to launch the event ends with a heartfelt message from His Holiness Pope Francis, who supports the initiative and invites everyone to participate: "Everyone's desire is peace. When playing as a team, competition instead of being war is seed of peace. Either we all win this match, or those who lose the most will continue to be children and young people. The symbol of this Peace Match is the olive tree. I invite you to play for Peace, I invite you next October 10th to plant it next to Scholas.”