ROME – An American football Muslim player has won a team competition to meet Pope Francis at Vatican, surprising his coach and teammates.

“I’m extremely excited,” Salim Makki, a defensive tackle from Dearborn, told Detroit Free Press on Sunday, April 23.

“My family, everyone is excited.”

The visit plans started when Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh challenged his players to write an essay about why they should be picked to represent the team and meet Pope Francis at the Vatican.

Harbaugh picked Makki, an American Muslim, to meet with the pope, along with offensive tackle Grant Newsome.

“I was the judge,” Harbaugh said Sunday.

The decision was based on the essay, wrote by Makki, which surprised even his own teammates.

“His Holiness Pope Francis is sincerely one of my heroes,” wrote Salim Makki, a defensive tackle from Dearborn.

“I always read his tweets,” Makki said.

“Two years ago, I was reading one of his tweets and he said that Muslims, Christians and Catholics are all brothers and sisters. And we should all treat each other like that. When you read stuff like that, it touches you, because of what’s going on right now in the world. Even in the US, with what’s going on with the Syrian refugees. … He’s out their washing Syrian’s feet.”

“He defends my religion. My mother was Christian. She used to go church on Sunday and the mosque on Friday. She was both, half-half. She always taught me those morals. Never judge.”

Visiting Rome currently with his team, Makki said friends and family have been reaching out, telling him what to say to the pope.

“I went to an all-Muslim high school,” he said.

“Each of my coaches is reaching out, saying how proud of me they are. They are really happy that I’m showing that side, that we can co-exist.”

Makki said his mother and father were born in Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa.

“My oldest sister was actually born in Sierra Leone,” Makki said. “They traveled here when the war was going on.”

On Sunday afternoon, Makki was with refugees at a park in Rome.

“I just played catch with them,” he said. “Shared a meal. It just feels good, to know you are helping.”