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Nicknamed The King, Pelé died at the age of 82 at Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The country has announced three days of national mourning for the football star, the only footballer to have won three World Cups in his career, the first in 1958 when he was only 17 years old.
The world of football is in mourning. It was this Thursday, December 29 that Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as Pelé, died at the Albert-Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where he had been hospitalized since the end of November.
Worsening of his state of health
The former soccer star had been hospitalized with a respiratory infection and continued to be treated for his colon cancer. At the beginning of December, he gave news on his state of health and wanted to be reassuring. Unfortunately, a few days ago, his health suddenly deteriorated and his family explained that Pelé was now suffering from “heart and kidney failure”. It was finally his agent who announced the sad news. His daughter, Kely, also posted an Instagram message announcing the “King’s” death.
Different health problems for ten years
The last appearance of Pelé in good health dates back to the 2012 Olympic Games. Since then, the one who was elected athlete of the 20th century has chained health problems. He was hospitalized in 2014 for a serious urinary tract infection. A kidney stone was removed from him five years later and in 2021 his colon cancer broke out. Since the announcement of his death, the tributes, in particular from football stars, have multiplied. In Brazil, three days of national mourning have been declared by the government and the star will be buried in his country.
But before, the Brazilians will be able to come and pay a last tribute to the one who will have marked football. According to a statement from his club, the funeral wake of the greatest footballer of all time will take place “at the Urbano Caldeira stadium, (in the district of) Vila Belmiro, where he amazed the world. The body will leave Albert Einstein Hospital and go directly to the stadium in the early hours of Monday January 2, and the coffin will be placed in the center of the field. The public vigil is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.“.
A ceremony which should then last 24 hours, “until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, January 3, when the procession will proceed through the streets of Santos, passing through Canal 6, where Pelé’s mother Dona Celeste lived, and then to the cemetery of the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica, to burial reserved for family members.