Fifa will ask every country in the world to name a stadium in honour of Pelé, its president, Gianni Infantino, said on Monday. Pelé, the Bra...
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Fifa will ask every country in the world to name a stadium in honour of Pelé, its president, Gianni Infantino, said on Monday.
Pelé, the Brazil great who won the World Cup three times and scored more than 1,000 goals, died last Thursday aged 82.Infantino, who is in Brazil for Pelé’s funeral, told local reporters: “We’re going to ask every country in the world to name one of their football stadiums with the name of Pelé.”
In April 2021 Rio de Janeiro abandoned plans to name the famous Maracanã stadium after Pelé after it was vetoed by the state governor.
Pelé’s coffin was placed inside the Vila Belmiro stadium in Santos on Monday, the home ground of the club where he spent virtually his entire career.
Infantino released a statement on the day of Pelé’s death which began: “For everyone who loves the beautiful game, this is the day we never wanted to come. The day we lost Pelé.”
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| Infantino: Fifa to Ask Every Country to Name Stadium in Honour of Pelé |
Fans lined up outside the 106-year-old Vila Belmiro ground in Santos – the city in south-eastern Brazil where Pelé first made his name as a star goal scorer in the 1950s – overnight and at about 10am mourners began filing past the coffin that had been placed under a shaded tent in the middle of the field.
Family members, including Pelé’s widow, Marcia Aoki, and sons Edinho and Joshua, as well as dozens of friends and former teammates, stood over the open coffin, some of them weeping.
The world’s media watched on from the main stand as, a few metres to one side of the coffin, fans – most of them wearing shorts and many of them dressed in Santos shirts – walked by in silent tribute.
Three sides of the16,000-capacity stadium were draped with Santos flags celebrating the life of the city’s favourite son, and the public address system occasionally played some of the songs Pelé recorded during a parallel career as a singer and songwriter.
“LONG LIVE THE KING,” said one massive banner alongside others depicting his face and famous number 10 jersey.
“I had to come and pay tribute,” said Roberto Morais, a 67-year-old who had travelled 50 miles to see Pelé one last time. “I had to say goodbye. He was the king – he taught the whole world.”
Pelé passed away at São Paulo’s Albert Einstein hospital on Thursday afternoon after a long illness. The former Brazil international and Santos and New York Cosmos player was diagnosed with colon cancer in September 2021 and was in and out of hospital for a year.
His cancer stopped responding to treatment in November and doctors said his death came as a consequence of “multiple organ failure”.
Pelé’s body was kept in the hospital over the new year and driven 50 miles to the Santos ground early on Monday morning where it was laid out in the middle of the pitch.
Fans will be allowed to pass by the coffin for 24 hours before it is taken for a private burial on Tuesday. Pelé will be laid to rest in a private service at 10am on Tuesday in the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica, a vertical cemetery with space for 14,000 bodies. - Mail and Guardian
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