Count your blessings

TIME to count your blessings! We all know that aside from religion, a World Cup winning football team is also a sure sign from above.

For a bit of fun and to celebrate a South American pope at www.sambatimes.com we’ve put together a list of the truly blessed nations.

The tally takes into accounts both the number of World Cup trophies and the number of pontiffs supplied over the course of history.

Due to the fact only 19 World Cups have been awarded, we’ve given a heavy weighting to the silverware, declaring it worth 14 blessings.

Still, Italy is by far and away the global leading for blessings, with an overwhelming 221 popes and four World Cups.

Brazil, which is pope-less throughout time, pulls into second courtesy of its record five titles in the beautiful game.

Germany, France and Argentina complete the five, with newly-elected Pope Francis helping the Argentines to scrape past neighbouring rivals Uruguay.

We wonder how many patriots would gladly swap one of their papal representatives for a World Cup? Or perhaps vice-versa, trading a tournament of a glory for a commanding voice to the masses?

Interestingly, only twice has the serving pope and the World Cup champions been from the same country – 1934 and 1938 for Italy.

All three of Germany’s World Cups were achieved before Pope Benedict XVI took on the papacy.