We’ll never forget him Bewitched by Pele, Elizabeth II made him a Knight
SAO PAULO/SANTOS, Brazil - Brazil on Friday mourned the death of one of its brightest stars, soccer great Pele, with fans and friends paying their respects to the sports icon who died at the age of 82 after battling colon cancer for just over a year.
Outside Sao Paulo’s Albert Einstein hospital, where Pele had been undergoing treatment, fans gathered to mourn the loss of one of the greatest ever exponents of the beautiful game, displaying Pele memorabilia on a clothesline by the entrance.
“I’ll never forget him, the Brazilian king of soccer,” said 67-year-old Antonio da Paz. “He provided us with joy even in our saddest times.”
Pele’s death has unified Brazil, a country starkly divided by a bruising presidential election.
Outgoing far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who leaves office on Sunday, declared three days of mourning.
“I had the pleasure of meeting him, talking to him for a few minutes in 1991 a simple man who raised Brazil’s name in the four corners of the world,” Bolsonaro said in a social media broadcast on Friday. “The whole world is crying today”.
Monuments have been lit up to honour the only man to win the World Cup three times as a player, including Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue and Sao Paulo’s NeoQuimica Arena, where the opening match of the 2014 World Cup was played.
“I lost my brother,” Pele’s longtime personal assistant Jose Pepito Fornos told Reuters. “But we’ll have all eternity to be together in the Father’s house.”
Edson Arantes do Nascimento - Pele’s given name - died on Thursday local time “due to multiple organ failures resulting from the progression of colon cancer associated with his previous medical condition,” the hospital said in a statement.
Pele’s wake will take place on Monday, only after the inauguration of President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in the centre of the field at the stadium of Santos, his hometown club, which experienced a cloudy and rainy Friday morning.
Brazil’s incoming president, who took office yesterday, is expected to attend the ceremony on Tuesday morning, but no final decision has been taken yet, two sources close to Lula said.
Most of the people around the stadium were reporters, while the club’s staff prepared the venue for Pele’s memorial. A message on the stadium’s big screen read “Thank you, Pele”.
On Tuesday, a procession carrying his coffin will pass through the streets of the coastal city of Santos, ending at the Ecumenical Memorial Necropolis cemetery, where Pele will be buried in a private ceremony. ■
SAO PAULO - In 2022, Britain lost its queen and Brazil its soccer ‘king’ two giant figures of the 20th century who crossed paths at least twice over the years.
Former Pele team mate Gerson recalled one of those times in an interview with Reuters this week.
The year was 1968, and Elizabeth was guest of honor at a soccer match at Rio de Janeiro’s monumental Maracana stadium during an official visit to Brazil. After the game, she presented Pele with a trophy.
“I was there,” said Gerson, who won the 1970 World Cup with Brazil and also played against Pele’s side in the 1968 game.
“It was a remarkable moment, having the queen at a soccer match was not usual - and here in Brazil it happened only once, exactly that game.”
Gerson appeared in pictures next to Pele, the queen and her husband Prince Philip, and said he had a photo of the moment framed and put on display in his home.
Known as “O Rei,” or “The King,” Pele died on Thursday at the age of 82 following a battle with colon cancer, less than four months after Britain’s longest-reigning monarch passed away aged 96.
Pele, who scored a goal in the friendly match that brought together the top players from the state of Sao Paulo and the best players of Rio de Janeiro, recalled the game when the queen died on Sept. 8.
He said on Twitter he had admired Elizabeth ever since the first time he saw her in person, when “she came to Brazil to witness our love for football and experienced the magic of a packed Maracana.”
Years later, in 1997, the queen honoured Pele with an honorary knighthood of the British Empire. He remembered the moment in an Instagram post in 2017 when he thanked “all the British people for their affection”.
After the news of his death on Thursday, London’s Wembley Stadium was lit up in the yellow and green colours of Brazil with a sign reading his name. The Prince and Princess of Wales shared a picture of the tribute on social media.
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