US Avellino won promotion to Serie B on April 19, 2025, during the Easter holiday, just two days before the death of Pope Francis on April 21 at the age of 88. This particularly close time coincidence immediately reignited the debate over the alleged connection between the promotions of the Irpino club and the papal events. Social media was flooded with comments and memes celebrating this apparent mystical link between the Campania club and the Vatican, with thousands of shares in the hours following the news of the pontiff’s passing.
The legend of “papal promotions”
According to the popular narrative, which has now become part of Italian football folklore, the phenomenon is said to have begun in 1958 with the death of Pope Pius XII on Oct. 9, when Avellino was playing in the then-called Interregional league (fourth series). The team actually achieved promotion to Serie C the following season. Since then, numerous sports and non-sports media have highlighted a series of similar coincidences, insistently talking about “six papal promotions in 67 years, “ creating a real football legend that has been amplified by Irpinian fans as a sort of hallmark of their identity.
The truth behind the myth
Despite the apparent pattern that has captivated fans and journalists, the data show a decidedly more nuanced and less extraordinary reality. Since the Second World War, Avellino has achieved as many as 15 promotions in the various Italian leagues, while there have been only 6 deceased popes in the same period (plus one pope emeritus, Benedict XVI). This simple numerical comparison already shows how the correlation is much weaker than the popular narrative suggests. As reliable sources confirm, only on two or three occasions was promotion followed or preceded shortly after the death of a pontiff, making the statistic much less impressive.
The cases actually documented and the inconsistencies
The most significant and verifiable temporal coincidences concern 1978 (Avellino’s historic promotion to Serie A and Paul VI’s death on August 6 of that year), 2005 (promotion to Serie B with a victory over Napoli in the playoff final on June 19, a few months after John Paul II’s death on April 2), and now 2025, with the timing particularly close between the promotion and Pope Francis’ death.
However, many other promotions mentioned in the legend occurred months after or before the respective papal events, as in the case of Pius XII (who died in October 1958, with promotion not occurring until June 1959), or Benedict XVI (who resigned in February 2013, while Avellino did not gain promotion until May 5, more than two months later).
The media impact of the coincidence
The synchronicity between sporting and religious events has deeply fascinated Italian fans and media, creating a phenomenon of interest that goes far beyond the simple sports result to enter the dimension of football superstition. This narrative spread rapidly on social networks with mostly amused and ironic tones, before being taken up by numerous local and national media, fueling catchy headlines based on the popular saying “every death of a pope” indicating extremely rare events.
This phenomenon shows how in Italian soccer, a sport lived with almost religious passion, curious statistics and coincidences can take on almost mythological dimensions, regardless of their actual statistical consistency.
Despite the fact that the numbers tell a less extraordinary reality than one would like to believe, this legend continues to fascinate and be passed on. After all, in a country where soccer and faith represent two fundamental pillars of popular culture, could there ever be a more fascinating coincidence than that which links the fate of a provincial team to the highest echelons of the Catholic Church?