DBid farewell to the lands that propelled him as the king of football. Several hundred Brazilians were on Monday January 2 in Santos to pay their last respects to Pelé, four days after his death, which occurred at the age of 82. His coffin resting in the center of the lawn of the stadium of his first exploits.
The gates to Santos FC’s Vila Belmiro stadium were opened at 10 a.m. (1300 GMT) for a 24-hour funeral wake. When they were allowed in, the fans cheered and started shouting, “Pelé, Pelé, Pelé! On Tuesday, a procession will travel through the streets of Santos, a town 75 kilometers southeast of São Paulo, ahead of the funeral, which only the family will attend.
Dozens of wreaths, sent by football personalities such as Paris star SG Neymar or foreign clubs such as Real Madrid, were placed around the coffin, sheltered under a large white tent.
READ ALSODeath of Pelé: the world of football pays tribute to the legendAmong the first to greet him, the president of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, who came specially to Brazil to pay tribute to what many consider to be the greatest footballer of all time. The president of the South American football confederation (Conmebol), Alejandro Doinguez, was also present, alongside Pelé’s wife, Marcia Aoki.
Three giant banners were placed in the stands of the 16,000-seat enclosure: one showing Pelé from behind with the 10 jersey that the ex-striker immortalized, while the other two read “Long live the king” and “Pele 82 years old”.
“The Greatest”
Many supporters were present around the stadium long before the doors opened. Among them, Carlos Mota, 59, who came specially from Rio de Janeiro, about 500 km from Santos, to pay tribute to Pelé. He wears the jersey of Fluminense, his favorite club, and his son Bernardo, 12, that of FC Barcelona. “I always told my son that there were three things that weren’t discussed: the ball is round, the lawn is green and Pelé is the tallest,” he told AFP. “I’ve never seen Pelé play in real life, just a few video clips of matches, but I’m sure he’s the best player of all time,” adds the young Bernardo. ” I am very moved. We loved watching his matches as a family,” said Vera Lucia, a 75-year-old retiree who lives in São Paulo.
Outside the stadium, bouquets of flowers adorn a bust and a statue of Pelé, while banners bearing his likeness were unfurled in another part of the city where there is also a monument to his memory. “I enchanted the world with the ball at my feet”, could we read on one of them.
” Eternal “
In the rest of Brazil, tributes were also visible such as on one of the walls of the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) in Rio de Janeiro, where there is a giant image of the former number 10 with the shirt of the Seleçao and the word “eternal”. A minute of silence in his memory was also observed on Sunday during the inauguration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia.
Security has been tightened at Congonhas de São Paulo airport in anticipation of the arrival of sportsmen, politicians and other personalities planning to attend the funeral wake, according to the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper.
The death of the genius player, who scored 1,283 goals in his 21-year career, most of them with his club Santos, moved beyond Brazil and sparked a tsunami of condolences.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pelé, spent a month in the Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo until his death on December 29 from kidney and heart failure, bronchopneumonia and a colon adenocarcinoma, according to the death certificate published by several local media.
“We were with him” on December 21, assured his sister Maria Lucia. “He was very calm, we talked a little, but I already felt that he felt it, he already knew that he was going to leave”, she testified.