Brazil has entered an extended period of mourning for Pele, with images of the legend displayed on buildings up and down the country.
The photos of Edson Arantes do Nascimento – Pele’s full name – drew tearful crowds as fans paid their respects to football’s “best player ever”. In Rio de Janeiro, the Christ the Redeemer statue was lit up in Brazil’s colours of yellow and green and the famous Maracana Stadium, which he graced so many times, was engulfed in swathes of gold light.
In Britain, tributes will include players at Premier League matches wearing black armbands this weekend and taking part in one minute’s applause. Across Brazil, supporters were coming to terms with the loss of the only man to win the World Cup three times.
Details were released of Pele’s memorial and funeral next week after his death aged 82 from cancer. It will include an emotional drive past the area where his 100-year-old mum still lives. He will then be laid to rest in the world’s tallest cemetery which has an incredible 14 storeys.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to pay their respects to Pele in his home city of Santos from Monday. Brazil’s newspaper front pages were all about Pele yesterday. One read simply: “Pele died, if indeed Pele can die.”
His loss was felt around the world, with sports newspapers in Spain describing him as O Rei - The King. The last time any sort of national mourning was declared in Brazil was when the Queen died back in September.
Many Brazilians drew parallels between Pele and royalty – they said he was the closest Brazil had to a King. The Brazilian government announced three days of mourning ahead of his funeral. Officials have carefully planned for his death for several years and have wanted to give as many fans as possible the chance to celebrate his life.
The coffin containing his body will be placed in the centre of the pitch at his beloved Santos stadium. Pele started his career with Santos, a coastal city an hour from Sao Paulo, as a 15-year-old before going on to become the world’s first great sporting star.
Supporters will be allowed to file past from 10am on Monday.
The coffin will remain there, under a white tented area, for 24 hours before it will be placed in a hearse and taken on a special public parade. It will pass through the suburb of Canal 6, where Pele’s centenarian mother, Celeste, still resides.
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The cortege will then continue to Pele’s final resting place, the Memorial Necropole Ecumenica cemetery in Santos, where a private funeral, reserved for family members, will be held. His coffin will be interned in an amazing “vertical cemetery”, where he will be laid to rest with family members.
It stands between tall office buildings and forest areas and, according to Guinness World Records, is the tallest vertical cemetery in the world with 14 storeys and an amazing 14,000 vaults. It includes crypts, rooms to hold services, a crematorium and a mausoleum “for families who want to preserve their legacy in a more personal and private way”.
The respect in which Pele was held has been confirmed in the past 24 hours as tributes flooded in from outside the world of football. Hollywood actor Will Smith paid one of many tributes from the world of entertainment, saying Pele was “the greatest to ever do it”, adding, “Rest in peace King Pele”.
He was joined by fellow celebrities Naomi Campbell, Nigella Lawson, Boy George, Russell Brand, Liam Gallagher, Billy Bragg, Irvine Welsh and Robert Carlyle in paying respects to the Brazilian footballing legend. Billionaire Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson said on Twitter Pele was the “original GOAT [greatest of all time], and an inspiration to generations of football players and fans”.
US President Joe Biden said Pele’s rise from “humble beginnings to soccer legend is a story of what is possible”. When he visited Washington to help make the game popular in North America, it was famously the then-US President who stuck out his hand first.
“My name is Ronald Reagan, I’m the President of the United States of America,” the host said to his visitor. “But you don’t need to introduce yourself because everyone knows who Pele is.”
Pele was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II back in 1997. The offices of outgoing Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and incoming premier Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, have shared tributes. Lula’s premiership begins on Sunday after his recent election victory.
The footballer who would be dubbed “The King” was introduced to the world at 17 at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, the youngest player ever at the tournament. He was carried off the field on team-mates’ shoulders after scoring two goals in Brazil’s 5-2 victory over the host country in the final.
He won the World Cup for the second time in Chile in 1962, when Brazil beat Czechoslovakia 3-1 in the final. And he completed his hat-trick of World Cup wins in Mexico in 1970, scoring in a 4-1 final victory over Italy.
