The burial concludes a 24-hour public memorial that attracted 230,000 mourners, together with Brazilian President Lula.
Mourners lined the streets within the coastal metropolis of Santos, Brazil, on Tuesday as Pele’s physique was transported in a black coffin from the Vila Belmiro stadium to the late soccer legend’s remaining resting place on the Necropole Ecumenica Memorial Cemetery.
A band greeted the casket because it entered the cemetery, taking part in a Catholic hymn and the workforce music for the native Santos soccer workforce, the place Pele performed for a lot of his profession. Followers additionally serenaded the casket with samba music, as a tribute to the fallen sports activities star.
Pele was laid to relaxation in a 200sq metre mausoleum, close to the place his father, aunt, brother and daughter are interred. His burial place will likely be adorned like a soccer stadium, with photographs of his profession highlights.
The burial marked the tip of a 24-hour public memorial service for Pele, who died final week on the age of 82 after battling colon most cancers for a yr.
Greater than 230,000 folks, together with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, had come to Santos to pay their respects to the three-time World Cup winner, who lay in an open casket on the midfield line of the Vila Belmiro stadium on Monday and in a single day into Tuesday. His coffin was draped within the flags of Brazil and the Santos Soccer Membership.
Mourners ranged from highschool college students to Supreme Court docket justices, a few of whom spent hours lining as much as pay their respects to Pele within the century-old stadium the place he made his hometown workforce one in every of Brazil’s greatest.
Santos was not solely the place Pele grew up but additionally the place he turned well-known, making the town a world capital of soccer. He stays the solely participant ever to win three World Cups.
“Pele represents so much for us Brazilian folks,” Thiago Mostazo, a soccer fan, informed Al Jazeera exterior the stadium. “It’s a tragic second, however it’s additionally a second to honour his life and his profession as the best soccer participant ever.”
Geovana Sarmento, 17, waited for 3 hours to view Pele’s physique because it lay in repose on the stadium. She got here together with her father, who was carrying a Brazil shirt with Pele’s title.
“I'm not a Santos fan, neither is my father. However this man invented Brazil’s nationwide workforce. He made Santos stronger, he made it massive, how may you not respect him? He is among the biggest folks ever, we wanted to honour him,” she informed the Related Press information company.
“Lengthy reside the king,” an enormous banner learn contained in the stadium. Dubbed the “king of soccer“, Pele performed for Santos from 1956 to 1974, scoring greater than 1,000 targets.
Lifelong Santos fan Katia Cruz, 58, who lives a block from the stadium, mentioned she had stood in line for 4 hours to get into the Vila Belmiro at 1:30am (04:30 GMT), attending the wake alone as a result of her husband was “inconsolable”.
She recalled Pele as a “superb, down-to-earth particular person” who would all the time autograph the memorabilia folks delivered to his home.
“He was humble, a humility as we speak’s gamers don’t have,” she informed AFP.
Others expressed disappointment that a few of Brazil’s most well-known footballers weren't in attendance.
“The place’s Ronaldo Nazario? The place’s Kaka, the place’s Neymar?” Claudionor Alves, a 67-year-old who works at a bakery subsequent to the stadium, requested the Related Press. “Do they suppose they are going to be remembered like Pele will? These guys didn’t need to cease their holidays, that’s the issue.”
Rows of shirts with Pele’s quantity 10 have been lined up behind one of many goalposts, waving within the metropolis’s summer time breeze. A piece of the stands was filling up with bouquets of flowers positioned by mourners and despatched by golf equipment and star gamers – Neymar and Ronaldo amongst them – from world wide as loudspeakers performed a music referred to as Eu sou Pele (I'm Pele) that was recorded by the Brazilian himself.
The gang was principally native, though some got here from far corners of the nation. Many mourners have been too younger ever to have seen Pele play.
Newly sworn-in President Lula arrived by helicopter on Tuesday morning and stood subsequent to Pele’s coffin within the centre of the sphere. He took half in a Catholic mass as followers continued to stroll previous the coffin, and expressed his condolences to Pele’s widow, Marcia Aoki.
“Few Brazilians carried the title of our nation so far as he did,” Lula mentioned final week after Pele’s dying.
Within the Sixties and Nineteen Seventies, Pele was maybe the world’s most well-known athlete. He met presidents and queens and, in Nigeria, a civil battle was placed on maintain to observe him play. Many Brazilians credit score him for placing the nation on the world stage for the primary time.
Celebrities and authorities additionally paid their respects. FIFA President Gianni Infantino was one of many first to attend the memorial on Monday and mentioned he would ask soccer associations world wide to call a stadium after Pele.
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