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Hundreds of people line up at the stadium of the Brazilian team Santos. The open coffin was placed in the center of the court. After a 24-hour wake, the king of world soccer will be buried on Tuesday in a private ceremony.
With our special envoys to Santos, Marcos Moreno, Annie Gasnier Y Richard Riffoneau.
The sun shines on the Vila Belmiro stadium and the line lengthens as hundreds of people arrive at the number 2 entrance of the Santos club. They come to pay their last respects to Pelé.
Some have been waiting since Sunday afternoon at the gates of the stadium that saw their legend grow. There is a door reserved for great personalities, such as President Lula or FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
The coffin of the only soccer player to have won three World Cups (in 1958, in 1962 and in 1970) has been placed in the middle of the field. Entrance to the stadium will be allowed “without interruption” until Tuesday morning.
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The funeral chapel, on the lawn that saw him play so many times, will last 24 hours before giving way to a funeral procession that will go through the streets of Santos until ending in a private family ceremony.
In the stands of the stadium they have placed three giant banners: one with Pelé from behind with the “10” shirt that the former striker immortalized and two others in which you can read “Long live the king” and “Pelé 82 years”.
“We Have Arrived Home”
Pele’s remains arrived overnight from Sao Paulo in a funeral vehicle. Santos fans and onlookers greeted him in the street with applause and gunpowder. On social networks, Edinho, Pelé’s son wrote: “We have arrived home.” A very emotional moment was seeing his widow, Marcia Aoki, cry a lot with her son.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pelé, spent a month in the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo until he died on December 29 due to kidney and heart failure, bronchopneumonia and colon adenocarcinoma, according to the certificate of death published by various local media.
