Only recognized him when he saw him climb the window of St. Peter’s Square and be acclaimed Pope
Robert’s personal coach Francis Prevost in the last two years, Valerio Masella, did not know that now Pope Leo XIV was a cardinal and was surprised when he appeared in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican as a new pontiff.
“I recognized it when it appeared in St. Peter’s Square,” says Masella, in an interview published this Saturday Italian Daily Il Messaggero.
Valeiro Masella, 26, reveals that it was the instructor who accompanied PREVOST for almost two years in a gym attached to the Vatican.
“No one at the gym knew Robert, now Leo XIV, was a cardinal, not even me who trained him,” he confesses.
According to Mesella, the new 69 -year -old Pope, “was quite constant in his training” and used to train “for a good time” every time he went to the gym. “It came twice a week, sometimes up to three times a week,” he said.
“I always saw him in the morning, the schedules could also change. Sometimes it was early, sometimes mid-morning. I think it had to do with work commitments, although we never talked about it and I never asked him,” he adds, confiding that the new pope said “little or nothing” during training.
According to the personal coach, Cardinal Prevost “was very reserved, but always very friendly and smiling,” and “from time to time we changed some impressions.”
He adds that he never thought that Prevost was a cardinal and that he actually considered him a teacher or an academic.
The coach stresses that “for his age,” the current Pope has “an exceptional physical form, typical of someone who has never stopped sports, with an excellent relationship between muscle mass, bone mass and fat mass.” It also underlines that “it has a great physical resistance.”
“We started with some aerobic exercise and a heating, using some machines such as the treadmill or the exercise bike,” he explains.
Half an hour later, I did “useful exercises to strengthen muscles and others more specific to posture,” he says.
“I imagined that he was a very busy man,” says Masella, adding that she never felt that he was a person under stress.
However, Masella never knew exactly what her profession was.
“When he was elected Pope, seeing him on television, I immediately recognized him. I didn’t believe it,” he comments.
“In practice, I formed the future pontiff: it’s unbelievable, but for me it was a customer like any other and behaved like all the gym customers,” he concludes.
American cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, was elected Pope on May 8, after two days of conclave, and took the name of Leo XIV.
Born in Chicago, United States, he has Spanish ancestry and Peruvian nationality, and belongs to the Order of St. Augustine. He was so far Mayor of the Dicsteria for the bishops.
Leo XIV succeeds Pope Francis, who died on April 21 at the age of 88.
On Sunday, May 18, the inauguration mass of its pontificate takes place.
