Brazil says a last farewell to the “King”. At the Urbano-Caldeira stadium, in Santos, home of Pelé’s historic club, hundreds of supporters began marching on Monday, January 2, to pay their last respects to the legend of football who died four days earlier and whose coffin rests in the center of the lawn of his first exploits.
Access to the Santos Futebol Clube stadium, open from 10 a.m. (2 p.m., Paris time), is authorized ” without interruption “ for twenty-four hours. Tuesday, a procession will begin in the streets of this port city located 75 kilometers from Sao Paulo (South-East), before the burial, which will be celebrated in the strictest intimacy.
Tributes from the big names in football
Dozens of wreaths, sent by football personalities, such as Paris Saint-Germain star Neymar, or foreign clubs, such as Real Madrid, had been placed around the coffin, sheltered by a large white tent.
Among the first to greet him was FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who traveled to Brazil especially to pay tribute to what many consider to be the greatest footballer of all time. The president of the South American Football Confederation, Alejandro Dominguez, was also present, alongside Pelé’s wife, Marcia Aoki.
Three giant banners had been placed in the stands of the 16,000-seat enclosure: one showing Pelé from the back with the shirt stamped with the number 10 that the striker immortalized, while on the other two, one could read ” Long live the king “ and “Pele 82 years old”.
Supporters came in droves
Many supporters were present around the stadium long before the doors opened. 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.
In the rest of Brazil, tributes were also visible, such as on one of the walls of the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation, in Rio de Janeiro, where there is a giant image of the former number 10 with the jersey 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 the Sao Paulo-Congonhas airport in anticipation of the arrival of sportsmen, politicians and other personalities planning to attend the funeral wake, according to the newspaper. Folha de S. Paulo. The death of the genius player, who scored 1,283 goals in his twenty-one-year career, most of them with his club Santos, has moved beyond Brazil and aroused a tsunami of condolences. Pelé, whose real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, spent a month in Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo until his death on Thursday at the age of 82 from colon cancer.