BARCELONA (RNS) – With the FIFA World Cup starting tomorrow (June 11), Pope Leo XIV said soccer is an opportunity to come together, during a meeting with charity workers at the Church of Sant Agustí in Barcelona, Spain on Wednesday.

“Soccer reminds us of something we must not forget: life is not a race to show off on our own, but a path we learn to walk together,” the pope said, answering a question on whether he liked soccer.

“Anyone who does not know how to pass the ball, even if they have talent, has not yet understood the game, and anyone who does not know how to live with and for others has not yet understood life,” he added.

While Leo is known for being a tennis fan, he said he appreciates soccer, adding that he supported local teams during his years as a bishop in Peru. “Sports are important because they help us grow healthy in body and mind,” he said.

In an off-the-cuff remark he said that in the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, he played with seminarians in defense position because he wasn’t “a great goleador (goal scorer).”

He added that he used to play American football when he was younger, “even though it was a bit more violent.”

As pope, Leo has had a chance to meet with soccer players and clubs. Most recently, he visited the Real Madrid club and met with the team’s president, Florentino Pérez, who gave him a Madrid shirt with “Robert F. Prevost” on the back, his name.

Just before landing in Madrid for his weeklong papal visit to Spain, Leo weighed in on the one of the most heated rivalries in soccer. Asked whether he supported Real Madrid or FC Barcelona, he said: “The pope is for all teams, but Prevost is for Real Madrid.”

On Monday, a crowd to see Leo packed the Bernabéu stadium, the home of the Real Madrid soccer team, as 80,000 Catholics from all over Spain came to cheer the pontiff. “Today, the church in Madrid has scored a great goal to always be remembered!” he told the crowd.

The president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta i Estruch, attended Leo’s rosary prayer at the mountain sanctuary of Montserrat.

The World Cup will hold its opening match in Mexico City on Thursday. The final match will be hosted by the United States in New Jersey on July 19.

It’s not uncommon for popes to support a soccer team. Pope Francis was a longtime fan of his home team, San Lorenzo, while Pope Benedict XVI was a supporter of the German club FC Bayern Munich. Saint Pope John Paul II cheered for him Polish team KS Cracovia, but had a lifelong Barcelona membership card for saying Mass at the team’s stadium in 1982.

According to a The New York Times article, the future Pope Leo enthusiastically celebrated the 2010 World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands in a pizza bar in Spain. He chanted “I am Spanish” alongside his friend, Armando Jesús Lovera, when Spain made the winning score in overtime. In his remarks on Wednesday, Leo also said he watched the 1982 World Cup in Spain. “Soccer has been a part of my life,” he added.