First, he became pope. Then, he took down LeBron James
First, he was elected to be the Catholic Church's new pope. Then, he took down LeBron James and Victor Wembanyama.
No, Pope Leo XIV is not a basketball phenom. He's the subject of a highly popular new trading card, which is outperforming past cards featuring top NBA stars, according to The Athletic.
Topps released the Pope Leo trading card on Thursday. It shows him standing on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica and waving to the crowd gathered below, moments after being introduced to the world.
By Monday afternoon, Topps had sold 133,535 copies of its Pope Leo card, the company announced on X.
That broke the record for sales of a Topps Now card focused on something other than sports.
'Topps Now cards are printed to order and made to commemorate milestone events, then sold individually for a limited time,' The Athletic reported.
As The Athletic noted, the Pope Leo trading card has outperformed several sports-related Topps Now cards, including a card made to celebrate LeBron James reaching 40,000 career points.
While more than 130,000 copies of the Pope Leo card have been purchased so far, Topps printed 86,072 copies of the James card and 133,777 of a card commemorating Victor Wembanyama winning the NBA's Rookie of the Year award.
But the Pope Leo card has a long way to go if it hopes to set a new sales record for all types of Topps Now cards.
'The record for a sports Topps Now card is currently held by the one produced to commemorate Shohei Ohtani becoming the first MLB player to achieve a 50/50 season, which had a print run of 653,737,' The Athletic reported.
The Topps Now card is just one of many new products that's been released in honor of the new pope.
Several clothing companies in the U.S. have released shirts highlighting Pope Leo's connections to Chicago, using phrases like 'Da Pope,' according to ABC7 Chicago.
Breweries are creating pope-themed beers, bobblehead brands are selling Pope Leo bobbleheads and Portillo's is selling a sandwich called 'The Leo' for the rest of May.
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