Popstar Justin Bieber's legions of 'beliebers' might have felt just a bit embarrassed by his latest antics – or perhaps not.

The star – who famously riled devotees of Holocaust victim Anne Frank when he wrote "Hopefully she would have been a belieber" in the visitors' book at the Anne Frank Museum – is now said to have annoyed staff in the Vatican by kicking a football around its hallowed halls.

Bieber reportedly paid a sizeable 20,000 euros for a private after-hours tour of Vatican City, which included the Vatican's famous museums as well as the Pope's private apartments. Pope Francis – himself not lacking in star quality – prefers communal life in a clergy hostel.

Perhaps the previous Pope, John Paul II, a talented goalkeeper in his youth, might have been more sympathetic to the bad boy of pop.