FootballPelé, who died on Thursday at the age of 82, will be buried in Santos on Tuesday. After a 24-hour public vigil and a passage past his mother Dona Celeste’s house, Pelé is buried on the ninth floor of what is said to be the world’s tallest vertical cemetery.
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The funeral ceremony will be organized in an intimate circle, but that does not mean that Pelé will not receive a grand farewell in Brazil. The football legend’s body will be transferred from the hospital in São Paulo to the Urbano Caldeira Stadium in Santos on Monday morning. Pelé made his debut there as a 15-year-old, played almost his entire career and grew into a world star.
Pelé’s coffin will be placed in the center circle of the field, whereupon a public vigil will begin. In doing so, Pelé’s body can be given a final salute. The tents for that vigil have even been set up in the stadium. The vigil will start at 10 a.m. local time on Monday (2 p.m. in Belgium) and will last for 24 hours, until 10 a.m. Tuesday morning.
Subsequently, a procession will take place through the streets of Santos that will also pass the house of Dona Celeste, Pelé’s 100-year-old living mother. According to reports in Brazilian media, she is also deteriorating sharply. Dona Celeste wouldn’t be able to leave her bed and her mind wouldn’t be completely clear anymore. Last month, Pelé celebrated his mother’s birthday.
Pelé will then be buried in a closed circle in the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica. It is a fourteen-storey vertical cemetery – said to be the tallest in the world. It is also sometimes referred to as the place with ‘a tomb with a view’. According to ‘O Globo’, the Brazilian legend paid for a grave on the ninth floor nineteen years ago – referring to his father’s jersey number. The Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica offers space for 14,000 deceased. Also present: a chapel and a tropical garden with waterfall.
German football legend Franz Beckenbauer will not attend Pele’s funeral on Tuesday. “I would love to go to Brazil, but my health does not allow such a long flight,” said ‘der Franz’ in an interview with Bild am Sonntag.
In the seventies of the last century, the now 77-year-old Beckenbauer and Pelé played together at the American New York Cosmos. They became friends. “He was like a brother to me. In recent years there has been less contact due to circumstances, but such a friendship always remains. What remains now are the memories.”
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Read also: PORTRAIT. “I was born to play football”: how Pelé went from shoe shiner to legend who earned millions after career (+)
Wesley Sonck received the Golden Shoe from Pelé in 2002: “Exchanged a few words in English and that hug”
“Your legacy is eternal”: from Messi over Ronaldo to Mbappé, (football) world reacts to the death of legend Pelé
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