Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has decreed three days of mourning for the death of legendary footballer Pele, in a decree published in the Official Gazette.
"Official mourning is decreed throughout the country, a sign of respect after the death of Edson Arantes do Nascimento", reads the measure.
Farewell to Pele, legend of world football.
He was 82 years old, he had been hospitalized at Albert Einstein since the end of November for a tumor.
"All that we are is because of you. We love you infinitely. Rest in peace."
Thus, by adding the emoticon of two hearts and a photo of her hands 'intertwined' with those of her sisters and nieces, Pelé's daughter Kely Nascimento announces the death of her father on Instagram.
O Rei had been hospitalized in the Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo since last November 29, for a cycle of treatments after being operated on in September 2021 for colon cancer.
He had also contracted Covid.
He is survived by his wife Nomi Aoki and seven children.
"Pelé left us today. He went to heaven with Coutinho, his great companion at Santos. Now he is in the company of many eternal stars: Didi, Garrincha, Nilton Santos, Sócrates, Maradona. He left a certainty: there is never been a number 10 like him. Thanks Pele".
Brazil's President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva writes on Twitter.
The emotion on social networks PHOTO
He will be buried in a vertical cemetery considered to be the highest in the world, in the municipality of Santos.
This was reported by the newspaper 'O' Globo', which recalls that the Brazilian champion bought a series of niches for himself and his family years ago in the Memorial of the Ecumenical Necropolis.
The cemetery overlooks the Estádio Urbano Caldeira, the temple of Santos where O Rei made his professional debut and became a legend.
"It doesn't look like a cemetery," said Pelé when purchasing the niche on the ninth floor of the structure, underlining that it "transmits peace and spiritual tranquillity."
The wake for Pele will be held on Monday.
This was announced by his former club, Santos, adding that the funeral will take place the next day, Tuesday 3 January, in Santos.
The Urbano Caldeira stadium, better known as Vila Belmiro, will be open for the vigil, "there where Pele enchanted the world", as announced by the club.
Pelè's coffin will then be carried in a funeral procession through the streets of the city, before celebrating a private religious ceremony.
Pele's five best goals from Youtube
If football hadn't been called that, it should have had Pelé as its name, wrote Jorge Amado.
And now that Pelé is gone, carried away by a tumor more ferocious than the many midfielders who beat him on the pitch, an important part of this sport is also really leaving with him, the one on a human scale and for champions that characterized the twentieth century.
On the other hand Edson Arantes Do Nascimiento (as he was called before becoming a disyllable with sidereal popularity despite the absence of social media) of football was unquestionably O Rei, as his Brazilian compatriots dubbed him in ecstasy.
An enlightened monarch who in a cover life gave away records (the only footballer to win three World Cups, the first at 17, 1279 goals scored in his career...) and above all dreams.
ANSA agency
Pelé: 3 World Cups and 1,281 goals, the King also in numbers - Sport
From Santos to the NY Cosmos, then cinema and politics (ANSA)
Generations of children have tried the champion shot inspired by Pelé on a suburban lawn, a courtyard, a pitch.
And in fact anyone could be inspired for a small part by him, who was a champion in everything: right foot, left foot, speed, dribbling and header.
For him the hyperbole was wasted.
Athlete of the century (awarded by the IOC in 1999), footballer of the century (ex aequo with Maradona).
O Rei was with Muhammad Ali' the most famous athlete in history, famous in the most remote points of the world as in the great capitals.
Pelé's goal against Italy from Youtube
No other sportsman has had more spectators than him, and his face is still, many years after his retirement, among the most popular on the planet.
''I am known more than 'Jesus Christ'', he said years ago in an interview with ANSA.
A phrase that attracted criticism: but thinking about it, he wasn't wrong because "even if it's blasphemous - he explained - there is a logic. I'm Catholic, and I know what Jesus means with his values. But in the The world is full of people who believe in something else: in Asia, for example, there are hundreds of millions of Buddhists. Maybe they don't know who Christ is, but they've heard of Pelé...".
In the world, more prosaically, there are also people who believe that another football phenomenon, Maradona, has been superior to him.
Farewell to Pele, legend of world football
"False - he replied in that interview -, just look at the facts. Do you know how many goals Diego scored with his header? I'll tell you, no one: Pelé a hundred. And with his right foot?....in all I scored almost 1300 goals , does this figure mean anything to you? The problem is that the Argentines don't give up, they pitted me first by Di Stefano, then Sivori, then Maradona. They take note of the fact that in any case I'm worth more than all three".
He has been interviewed and photographed more than any other person: statesmen and movie stars.
It was welcomed by 'Rei' in 88 countries, and received by 70 premiers, 40 heads of state and three Popes.
In Nigeria a 48-hour truce was declared at the time of the war with Biafra so that everyone, on both sides, could see him play.
ANSA. it
Pele, O Rei of football - THE PHOTOS - Sport
Farewell to Pelé, O Rei of football loved by all (ANSA)
The Sha' of Persia waited for him for three hours in an airport just to be able to take a picture with him, the guards at the Chinese border abandoned their posts and moved to Hong Kong, attracting the ire of the regime, just because they had known that the Black Pearl was in the colony-city that day.
In Colombia Pele was sent off during a match, and the crowd filled the field forcing the referee to flee.
The match resumed only with the return of the great Brazilian to the field, at which point the crowd returned to the stands in disciplined fashion.
When he was 20 years old in Brazil he was declared a ''national treasure'', and his transfer abroad was therefore forbidden: the president of Inter Angelo Moratti was disappointed, who dreamed of taking him to the Nerazzurri and had made him very serious offers .
Pele's bicycle kick in Escape to Victory - Youtube
Pelé was immortalized by Andy Warhol in his portrait gallery.
Bauru', the Brazilian city where he began to play, has dedicated a statue to him that would produce miracles (there are those who claim to be healed by touching it): he certainly made famous even the few who stopped him perhaps in one day of poor vein, among these Giovanni Trapattoni.
One hundred songs (two of which he recorded himself, in 1969, together with the great Elis Regina) narrate his legend.
Hyperbole upon hyperbole, as numerous as his goals.
Goodbye great Pele, your legend will live forever pic.twitter.com/t7UxdINBaY
— Italian national team (@Azzurri) December 29, 2022
But thinking about it all together, they don't tell it like the plastic gesture of the bicycle kick in the film Escape for Victory or the header against Italy in the 1970 World Cup final, with Burgnich annihilated by his defiance of gravity.
Son of art of a footballer who had little luck, Dondinho, has never been able to explain the origin of his name, and in private, he is so popular and public, he even gave moments of great modesty.
In the interview with ANSA, he picked up the phone and simply said ''I'm Edson, how are you?''.
One would answer him: it was fine, Edson, as long as there was your smile to embellish the ball.
Now much less.
Farewell to Pele, legend of world football
