Pelé funeral latest updates: Brazil football legend to lie in state as coffin arrives at Santos burial site

Tributes Pour In Across The Globe For World Cup Great ‘King’ Pele

Brazil will hold football great Pelé’s funeral in the stadium where he played some of the best matches of his career.

Pelé, whose full name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, died on 29 December after a long battle with colon cancer. He was 82.

Santos, the club where Pele played, said in a statement that the public will be able to pay their final respects at Vila Belmiro Stadium, outside Sao Paulo.

His casket will be carried through the streets of Santos and will pass in front of the home of his 100-year-old mother, Celeste.

The coffin carrying the three-time World Cup champion will leave Albert Einstein hospital early Monday and will be placed in the centre circle of the field.

Mourners began paying their respects to Pelé in a solemn procession past his coffin at the Vila Belmiro Stadium. Visitation will be allowed from Monday 10am and will continue for the next 24 hours.

He will be burried at the Memorial Necropole Ecumenica, a vertical cemetery in Santos, only in presence of family on Tuesday.

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Fifa president Gianni Infantino among those at Pele’s funeral

Fifa president Gianni Infantino greets the son of Brazilian football legend Pele, Edinho, and Pele’s wife, Marcia Aoki, during his wake in Santos.

(AFP via Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

Jamie Braidwood2 January 2023 14:28

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Pele’s coffin arrives at Santos stadium

Fans are arriving at the Vila Belmiro Stadium in Santos after Pele’s coffin was brought onto the middle of the pitch, where he will lie in state for 24 hours. Pele’s wife, Marcia Aoki, is among those to arrive.

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

Jamie Braidwood2 January 2023 14:05

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Fans pay last respects to Pele at Santos stadium

Fans lined up early Monday outside the Vila Belmiro Stadium ahead of Pelé’s funeral in his hometown of Santos. Pelé scored scored some of the best goals of his career at the 16,000-seat stadium outside Sao Paulo. His funeral is scheduled start at 10 a.m. local time, and the burial will take place in a vertical cemetery only 600 meters away on Tuesday.

Fans started arriving at the stadium in the early hours of Monday to pay their last respects to Edson Arantes do Nascimento, globally known as Pelé.One of them was Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes.

“It is a very sad moment, but we are now seeing the real meaning of this legendary player to our country,” Mendes told journalists. “My office has shirts signed by Pelé, a picture of him as a goalkeeper, also signed by him. DVDs, photos, a big collection of him.”

Inside the Vila Belmiro, a large tent has been set to place Pelé’s coffin. After Pelé’s funeral, his casket will be ushered through the streets of Santos before his burial. Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and other dignitaries are expected to attend.

Jamie Braidwood2 January 2023 13:45

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Pele’s coffin arrives at Santos Stadium ahead of wake

230102 – Pele Coffins Arrives At Santos Stadium Ahead Of Wake To Remember Football Legend-

Jamie Braidwood2 January 2023 13:05

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Pele returns home to Santos

Pele scored 643 goals for Santos in 656 competitive appearances, putting the club on the map not just in Brazil but around the world. Pele gave Santos two Copa Libertadores titles and two Intercontinental Cup titles against Benfica and AC Milan.

“There’s a Santos before Pele and another after him,” said Serginho Chulapa, Brazil’s striker in the 1982 World Cup and a local hero with more than 100 goals for the club. “He put both the city and club on the map. Before him, people came to work at the port and go to the beach.”

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

Jamie Braidwood2 January 2023 12:51

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Pele set to lie in wake for 24 hours

Crowds are beginning to arrive at the Vila Belmiro stadium, as preparations continue. Pele is set to lie in wake for 24 hours, according to reports.

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

Jamie Braidwood2 January 2023 11:52

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Millions set to line the streets for Pele’s funeral

Pele’s casket arrived at the Vila Belmiro stadium in the early hours of this morning, where it will lie in state before being carried through the streets of Santos to the home of his 100-year-old mother.

He will then be buried at a vertical cemetery in the city, with only his family present. Millions are expected to line the streets as Brazil says goodbye to the football icon.

(Getty Images)

(AFP via Getty Images)

Jamie Braidwood2 January 2023 11:08

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Premier League pays tribute to Pele

The Premier League remembered Pele across the weekend, with a minute’s applause held before each match in tribute to the Brazil great.

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(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

Jamie Braidwood2 January 2023 10:29

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Pele’s influence on football will be ‘eternal’, says Pep Guardiola

Pele’s influence in the world game will be everlasting, according to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. The Brazilian’s death has sparked a huge outpouring of affection and respect from around the globe.

Guardiola said: “On behalf of Manchester City, the biggest condolences for his family and friends. Football is football thanks to these types of people. Neymar said a great sentence when he said before (Pele) number 10 was just a number and after it became something special.

“Every top player wanted to wear number 10 in their team. What he has done for football is there and always will remain. It’s like a good movie, the legacy after many years. That we are still talking about him like a good movie or a good book is because he was so good.

“I think Pele, (Diego) Maradona, (Johan) Cruyff, (Lionel) Messi, (Franz) Beckenbauer, Cristiano Ronaldo – these type of players will be forever, they will be eternal. They have done many things in many years on the pitch and off it and with their teams and countries.

“These type of players make our business, our work, our job, however you want to say it, a better place because what he produced, what we have seen in the World Cup, what one team can produce can change 48 million people, the country. It’s unbelievable.”

Jamie Braidwood2 January 2023 09:43

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Pele: Football’s Elvis Presley who achieved immortality amid controversy

When it comes to properly appreciating a figure as mythic as Pele, the reality of their career can get lost amid the reverence over time, so it is worth recalling something actually said about him on one of the days he played. This was to be one of his greatest days.

In the hours before the 1970 World Cup final, Tarcisio Burgnich – about as grizzled an Italian defender as they come – kept repeating one phrase to himself.

“He’s flesh and blood, just like me.”

He’s flesh and blood, just like me.

“I was wrong,” Burgnich later said. Pele had that day made himself immortal. His pass for Carlos Alberto has become one of the most famous images from one of the most famous football moments. It wasn’t just a crescendo to an orchestral move that served as a crowning moment, but also the perfect illustration of what elevated him above everyone else.

Jamie Braidwood2 January 2023 08:51