No pope has been more synonymous with football than Pope John Paul II. He played in goal in his native Poland and even as Pontiff he took a keen interest in the world game. Several clubs were said to have been named as his favourites, such as Cracovia Krakow, Liverpool and Barcelona. London club Fulham were also mentioned in connection with the Pope, but that turned out to be a myth promoted by the media. Pope John Paul couldn’t have, as reported, stood on the Craven Cottage terraces as a young priest in 1930 because he would have been only ten at the time and was not ordained until 1946. A British newspaper that doctored a picture of the Pope to show him wearing a Fulham scarf was forced to apologise.
