Brazil bids goodbye to Pelé

Sports stars, public figures, and everyday fans began arriving in Santos in droves on Monday morning to say goodbye to Pelé, the King of Football who died last week aged 82 after a battle with colon cancer.

Tributes from all over the world started pouring in after the news broke of the football legend’s death on Thursday afternoon. Admirers can now pay their respects in person to the man born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, with a public wake being held today in the port city of Santos, home of the football club where Pelé shot to stardom as a teenager and then spent the better part of his career.

Pelé’s body was transported early this morning from the São Paulo hospital where he had been receiving care when he died to the Vila Belmiro stadium in Santos. The stadium’s doors opened at 10 am for the 24-hour wake. A procession will be held through the streets of Santos tomorrow before a private burial at the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica vertical cemetery — a location reportedly chosen by Pelé himself.

The Brazilian press reported that it was the wish of Pelé’s family that the football legend be buried after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was inaugurated as president. President Lula will travel to Santos to pay his respects to Pelé tomorrow morning, before the wake ends.

Authorities from the world of football are among the people to have attended the wake this Monday morning, including FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who said that he is in conversation with national football associations around the world to rename a stadium in every country after Pelé as a way of keeping his “unique legacy” alive for future generations.

The new governor of São Paulo state, Tarcísio de Freitas, and Supreme Court justice Gilmar Mendes were also spotted in Vila Belmiro on Monday, as were former teammates of Pelé, including Clodoaldo Tavares de Santana, who played alongside the King at Santos and in the world-famous 1970 national team that won Brazil’s third World Cup title in Mexico.

Current star forward Neymar, who is in France where he plays for Paris Saint-Germain, has made his excuses and was represented in Santos today by his father.

Thousands of ordinary Brazilians have also come to pay their respects, testimony to the admiration and affection that Pelé elicited.

People slept outside the stadium on Sunday evening, and fans of all ages are currently queuing for over an hour in the scorching summer heat to say their final goodbyes to the legend who put Brazilian football on the map.

“There is a Brazil before Pelé, and a Brazil after Pelé,” said Luis Guilherme Macedo, a die-hard Alvinegro (as Santos fans are known) who was headed to the wake this afternoon. Mr. Macedo, 29, says he became a Santos fan partly due to Pelé’s legendary exploits there, despite being too young to have seen the King play. 

“It’s a final tribute, to say goodbye and thank you to Pelé for everything he did for us, as Santos fans and Brazilians,” he said of his pilgrimage to Santos this Monday.

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