DPA
Rio de Janeiro
Thousands of fans filed past the coffin of Brazilian football great Pelé at the stadium of his long-time club Santos on Monday.
The three-times world champion was placed in the centre circle at the Estádio Urbano Caldeira in the port city of Santos, near São Paulo.
Many floral tributes were also laid at the stadium, including on behalf of the Brazilian football federation (CBF), the club Santos, Brazil’s star striker Neymar and former international Romário. The wake will last 24 hours.
Brazil’s new president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was also expected at the stadium. On Tuesday, a funeral procession will take the coffin through the neighbourhood where Pelé’s 100-year-old mother still lives to the Memorial Necropole Ecumenica cemetery tower. Pelé is to be interred there in the family vault. “He achieved an unforgettable feat, namely the third World Cup title in 1970, where I think Pelé reached his maximum as an athlete,” said Pelé’s former team-mate and friend Clodoaldo.
“For me it was the best display by a player in a World Cup, he was perfect, complete.”
Pelé’s relatives and closest friends gathered right by the coffin.
His son Edinho and widow Marcia Aoki joined hands and said a prayer.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino also paid his last respects to Pelé.
“With a lot of emotion, sadness, but also with a smile, because he gave us many smiles,” he said.
“As FIFA, we will pay tribute to the “King” and ask the whole world to observe a minute of silence. We will ask all the countries of the world to name at least one stadium after Pelé so that children know how important he was.” Numerous fans had already been waiting with flags and fireworks in front of the stadium entrance in the early morning to greet the cortège as it arrived.
Escorted by police and firefighters, the coffin was driven from the Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo, about 80 kilometres away, where Pelé died on Thursday at the age of 82 after a long illness.
Pelé’s son Edinho posted several short videos of the motorcade on Instagram. “We have arrived home,” he wrote.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, as the striker was known by his full name, left his mark on football like no other and is still the only man to win three World Cups.
“Brazil owes a lot to Pelé for everything he did for football and our country,” said São Paulo state governor Tarcísio de Freitas.
“It is an honour for Brazil to have the greatest of all time in our ranks. Three of our stars on the jersey were conquered thanks to his genius. He is one of a kind. He is immortal.”
