Hundreds of fans lined up Monday morning to parade through the Villa Belmirohome of Pelé’s longtime club Santos, where the coffin bearing the remains of ‘O Rei’ (The King) was displayed in the center of the pitch.
Pelé, a three-time World Cup winner widely regarded as the greatest footballer of all time, died on Thursday aged 82 after a long battle with cancer.
carlos mota and her 12-year-old son, Bernardo, traveled more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) from Rio de Janeiro to Santos, a port city in southeastern Sao Paulo state, to pay their respects to their late hero.
“My whole childhood was influenced by what Pelé did for Brazil, by his World Cup victories. He was a national idol,” Mota, 59, told AFP.
“I’ve never seen Pelé play, but I’ve seen the videos. He’s the greatest player to ever walk the earth,” Bernardo said.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Alejandro Dominguez, head of South American soccer confederation CONMEBOL, were among the first to pay their respects at the open coffin, which was displayed under a canopy and surrounded by bouquets of white flowers.
The team’s oceanfront stadium nicknamed “Peixe” — “fish” in Portuguese — opened at 10 a.m. (1300 GMT) for a 24-hour wake, followed by a funeral procession in the Santos streets. on Tuesday, then a private burial.
Known as Vila Belmiro after the neighborhood it is located in, the black and white stadium has a capacity of 16,000.
In the stands, three giant flags were unfurled, including one with an image of Pelé sporting his famous number 10 on his shirt.
Another carried the message “Vive le Roi”; the third simply said: “Pelé 82 years old”.
Tuesday’s funeral procession will pass the home of Pele’s mother, 100-year-old Celeste Arantes, who is still alive but unconscious and unaware that her son has died, according to the family.
The procession will end at a cemetery in Santos, where Pelé will be buried in a special mausoleum.
Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pelé is the only player in history to win three World Cups and defined the “beautiful game” with his talent. His death sparked a worldwide outpouring of tributes.
Pelé has scored 1,283 goals in his 21-year career, most of them at Santos.
Wreaths left by his fans have brought a splash of color to Vila Belmiro, which houses a bust and statue of the great footballer.
Elsewhere in the city, banners with Pelé’s face adorn another monument erected in his likeness.
At the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro, a giant poster bearing the image of Pelé bears the word “eternal”.
And during the Sunday inauguration of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the ceremony began with a minute of silence in memory of Pelé.
There has been a major security deployment in Santos, with crowds of athletes, politicians, dignitaries and fans expected to descend on the port city 75 kilometers from Sao Paulo.
Pelé had been hospitalized at the Albert Einstein Hospital for a month until his death on December 29.
Born on October 23, 1940, he grew up selling peanuts on the streets to help his destitute family.
He got his famous nickname after mispronouncing Bile, the name of a goalkeeper at Vasco de Sao Lourenço, where his footballer father once played.
Pelé burst onto the scene at 15, when he made his professional debut with Santos.
At just 17, he helped Brazil win their first World Cup, in 1958.
This was followed by World Cup titles in 1962 and 1970. The latter marked the peak of his career, as he played in what many consider to be the greatest team of all time.
Pelé had been in increasingly fragile health in recent years.
He remained active on social media, cheering on Brazil at the World Cup in Qatar and consoling the pre-tournament favorites when they were knocked out in the quarter-finals just three weeks before his death.
