Abde Ezzalzouli emerged as Real Betis’ hero on Thursday after he netted an extra-time winner to make them the first Spanish side to reach the Conference League final with a 4-3 aggregate victory over Fiorentina, setting up a showdown with Premier League side Chelsea.

But Leo, John insisted, always rooted for the White Sox. The pope was born Robert Prevost in 1955 and raised in Dolton, Ill., just south of the Chicago city limits. Following on avid soccer fan Pope Francis, the athletic world appears to have received another sports-loving pope.

And yet, the biggest W the Cubs have flown this year has nothing to do with any of that. It came all the way from Vatican City on Thursday afternoon, when word broke that Chicago native Robert Francis Prevost had been elected by the College of Cardinals to be the first American pope in the history of the Catholic Church.