BELGRADE, October 22 (RIA Novosti) - A group of Croatian Benedictine nuns have bought shares in a leading Croatian soccer club, the Vecherniy List paper said on Wednesday.

The 19 nuns, from a convent located some 150 km (93 miles) away from the coastal city of Zadar, bought 50 shares worth around $4,500 in Hajduk Split, the nine times champions of Croatia.

The club recently became a shareholder company. The purchase made the nuns one of the club's top 20 shareholders.

"Our mother superior told us that we had become owners of Hajduk shares, but I know hardly anything about this," a nun by the name of Anselma told the paper.

She also said that none of the nuns were from Split, adding that they usually "pray for the Croatian national soccer side."

Anselma also added that she and the other nuns knew hardly anything about the sport.

Journalists from the paper asked the nun to pose in a Hadjuk Split strip for their story but she "politely refused."

The mother superior declined to meet with the press.