150 000 people came to stadium to say goodbye to Pele
2023.01.03 08:47
150 000 people came to stadium to say goodbye to Pele
Budrigannews.com – In the coastal city of Santos, more than 150,000 people, including President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, paid their respects to the great Brazilian soccer player Pele. They walked past Pele’s open casket at the Vila Belmiro stadium to say their final goodbyes.
Pele’s memorial service began at 10 a.m. (1300 GMT) on Monday and is scheduled to end on Tuesday morning. Pele, 82, died last week after a year of fighting colon cancer.
According to Santos Football Club, people waited in long lines outside the stadium in Santos, where Pele spent the majority of his life, even overnight to pay their respects.
Inside the stadium, a massive banner read, “Long Live the King.” Pele, who played for Santos from 1956 to 1974 and was dubbed the “king of soccer,” scored more than 1,000 goals.
Recently sworn-in President Lula showed up by helicopter on Tuesday morning and remained close to Pele’s coffin, hung with a Brazilian banner, in the focal point of the soccer field.
Following Pele’s passing last week, Lula declared, “Few Brazilians carried the name of our country as far as he did.”
Authorities and celebrities also paid tribute. One of the first people to the memorial on Monday was FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who said he would ask football associations around the world to name a stadium after Pele.
Later on Tuesday, a procession carrying Pele’s coffin is scheduled to travel through the Santos streets, passing through the neighborhood where his mother, who is 100 years old, lives, and arriving at the Ecumenical Memorial Necropolis cemetery, where he will be buried in a private ceremony.
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