There are three things that are not discussed: that the ball is round, the grass is green and Pelé is the biggest
private burial
The remains of the only player to win three World Cups (1958, 1962, 1970) arrived at dawn in a caravan from the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo, where Pelé was hospitalized from November 29 until his death, a month later.
Several flags of different sizes decorated the stands of Santos: one with ‘O Rei’ from behind, showing the ’10’ shirt that he immortalized, and others with the messages “Long live the king”, “Pelé 82 years” or “10 shirt of the Saints”.
Entry will be allowed “uninterrupted” until Tuesday at 10:00 local time, after which a procession will begin through the streets of Santos, 75 kilometers from Sao Paulo, and will end in a city mausoleum with a reserved burial. for the family.
In that same cemetery rest the remains of Pelé’s father, brother and aunt.
The funeral caravan will pass by the house of the mother of the legendary ex-soccer player, Doña Celeste, 100 years old, who does not know of the death of her son.
“We told her, but (…) she is not aware,” Maria Lúcia do Nascimento, Pelé’s sister, told the channel on Friday. ESPN.
dark areas
The death of the former attacker, who claimed 1,283 goals in his 21-year career, most of them at the ‘Peixe’, caused a shock beyond the world of football and prompted messages of condolences from all over the planet.
But there was an expectation to know if his death, as a result of colon cancer that was detected in September 2021, would cause a massive attendance at the wake due to the end-of-year holidays and the fact that the ‘O Rei’ also He was criticized for his silence on the military dictatorship (1964-1985) and racism.
In fact, few people approached the hospital that treated him in Sao Paulo and Vila Belmiro in the previous days.
“I’m sure it’s going to be great, those two days a lot, a lot of people are going to come by,” who will say goodbye to the “king,” he said on Sunday to the AFPSilvio Neves Souza, a 54-year-old electrician, who went to take a photo with the bust and statue of Pelé outside the stadium.
Qatar, his last World Cup
Other tributes followed one another in Brazil, mainly during the inauguration ceremony of the leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Sunday in Brasilia, which began with a minute of silence in his memory.
Pelé spent a month in the Albert Einstein until his death on December 29. From there he followed the World Cup in Qatar and the elimination of the “Canarinha” in the quarterfinals.
“We were with him” on December 21, explained his sister Maria Lúcia. “He was very calm, we talked a little bit, but I already perceived that he felt it, he already knew that he was leaving“.