SANTOS, Brazil (AP):
Thousands of mourners, from school students to supreme court justices, began filing past the body of Pelé yesterday on the century-old field where he made his hometown team one of Brazil’s best.
The football great died last Thursday after a battle with cancer. The only player ever to win three World Cups was 82.
Pelé’s coffin was in the midfield area of Vila Belmiro, the stadium outside Sao Paulo that was his home for most of his career. A Catholic Mass will be celebrated there today before his burial at a nearby cemetery. Brazil’s newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will come to Vila Belmiro shortly before Pelé’s coffin is removed from the stadium.
The storied 16,000-seat stadium was surrounded by mourning fans and covered with Pelé-themed decorations inside.
Fans coming out of the stadium said they’d waited three hours in line, standing under a blazing sun.
Forty-five years after Pelé played his last game, he’s still a central part of Brazil’s national story.
Geovana Sarmento, 17, came with her father wearing a Brazil shirt with Pele’s name.
“I am not a Santos fan, and neither is my father, but this guy invented Brazil’s national team. He made Santos stronger, he made it big, how could you not respect him? He is one of the greatest people ever, we needed to honour him,” she said.
In the 1960s and ’70s, Pelé was perhaps the world’s most famous athlete. He met presidents and queens, and in Nigeria, a civil war was put on hold to watch him play. Many Brazilians credit him for putting the country on the world stage for the first time.
Rows of shirts with Pelé’s number 10 were placed behind one of the goals, waving in the city’s summer winds. A section of the stands was filling up with bouquets placed by mourners and sent by clubs and star players — Neymar and Ronaldo among them — from around the world as loudspeakers played a song named Eu sou Pelé (‘I am Pelé’) that was recorded by the Brazilian himself.
Santos FC said that more than 1,100 journalists from 23 countries were at the funeral. Dignitaries and friends of Pelé in attendance spoke at the funeral.
Among them was Pelé’s best friend, Manoel Maria, who is also a former Santos player. “If I had all the wealth in the world I would never be able to repay what this man did for me and my family. He was as great a man as he was as a player; the best of all time. His legacy will outlive us all, and that can be seen in this long line with people of all ages here.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino told journalists that every country should name a stadium after Pelé.
“I am here with a lot of emotion, and sadness, but also with a smile because he gave us so many smiles,” Infantino said. “As FIFA, we will pay a tribute to the ‘King’, and we ask the whole world to observe a minute of silence.”