Pelé: Brazilians bid final farewell with wake and coffin procession

CNN
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Brazilians have started paying their final respects to football great Pelé with a 24-hour public wake, which began on Monday at the Urbano Caldeira Stadium, the home of his former football club, Santos.

The wake is open to the public and mourners began entering the stadium Monday morning.

On Tuesday, a funeral procession will then carry Pelé’s coffin through the streets of the city of Santos, including passing down the street where Pelé’s 100-year-old mother, Celeste Arantes, lives.

The procession will continue to Pelé’s final resting place, the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica cemetery, where a private funeral will be held for family members.

Fireworks greeted the hearse carrying Pelé’s coffin as it left the Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo, where the three-time World Cup winner died on Thursday from multiple organ failure due to the progression of colon cancer.

The hearse was under a heavy police escort as it headed the stadium, where his coffin will be placed in the middle of the pitch.

Fans had already started lining the streets in the early hours of Monday morning, many holding flags or banners with messages for ‘O Rei’ (“The King”). “Pelé, you are eternal,” read one by the side of the highway.

Inside Santos’ 16,000-seater stadium, a number of large banners had been placed throughout the stands, with one reading “long live The King.”

For more than 60 years, the name Pelé has been synonymous with football. He played in four World Cups and is the only player in history to win three, but his legacy stretched far beyond his trophy haul and remarkable goal-scoring record.

“I was born to play football, just like Beethoven was born to write music and Michelangelo was born to paint,” Pelé famously said.

Pelé, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in history and Brazil held three days of national mourning following his death.

Tributes have poured in from sports stars, politicians and musicians from all around the world for a man that transcended his sport and became a global icon.