Pope Francis to kids: I wasn't 'bravo' at soccer, so I played goalie

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Rome • Pope Francis has told children at an Italian sports center he didn't play soccer well as a youth and was stuck with the nickname ''tough leg."

An 11-year-old boy asked Francis during a parish visit in the Rome suburb of Acilia on Sunday afternoon if he had played soccer as a child.

Francis, a keen soccer fan in his native Argentina, said since he wasn't ''bravo," he usually ended up playing goalie.

The pope said: ''When I was your age, I played soccer, but I wasn't 'bravo' at playing soccer, and where I come from, they call you 'pata dura,' 'tough leg.'"

He added: "I was a 'pata dura' and that's why I usually was the goalie, so I wouldn't have to move around."