BERLIN (AFP) - Bayern Munich players and their Spanish coach Pep Guardiola will have a private audience with Pope Francis next week, the German club announced Wednesday.

The audience will come the day after Bayern's Champions League match against AS Roma in the Italian capital on Tuesday (Wednesday morning Singapore time).

"Before their return to Munich on Wednesday morning, Pep Guardiola and his team will make a detour by the Vatican," the club said.

Pope Francis, an Argentinian, is a well-known football fan and in August received officials and players from San Lorenzo, the Argentine club which lifted the Libertadores Cup and of whom the pontiff was a boyhood supporter.