Pereira and 12-year-old Luis Eduardo weren’t the one ones conquer with emotion — a flood of enthusiasts of Brazil’s maximum respected wearing icon descended at Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital in Sao Paulo Thursday after Pele’s circle of relatives and docs showed his demise at age 82 .
“He’s our greatest idol, the greatest footballer of all time,” Antonio advised AFP, after operating 1.5 kilometers (nearly a mile) to the clinic, the place Pele died a month after being admitted for what became out to be his ultimate struggle with colon most cancers.
“I had always hoped to have my picture taken with him someday,” stated the 46-year-old businessman.
(Photo via Wagner Meier/Getty Images)
Wearing a soccer jersey, younger Luis Eduardo stated he used to be unhappy he had by no means had the danger to peer Pele’s mythical skill within the flesh. But like nearly all Brazilians, he grew up listening to about his exploits.
“The first name I ever heard about in football was Pele, the greatest player of all time,” Luis Eduardo stated.
Fans additionally flocked to depart flora out of doors the stadium of the membership the place Pele spent maximum of his profession, Santos, because the southeastern town declared seven days of mourning for its hero.
Other tributes briefly got here national: Brazil declared 3 days of nationwide mourning, Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Christ the Redeemer statue used to be lit up in yellow and inexperienced, and the famed Maracana stadium used to be illuminated in gold in homage to “the greatest of all time.”
Journalists from all over the world in the meantime traveled to São Paulo, Santos and Pele’s southeastern place of origin, Tres Coracoes, as Brazilian TV ran wall-to-wall protection of his demise and the nationwide outpouring of emotion — punctuated with dazzling archival pictures from his taking part in days .
Nicknamed “O Rei” — The King — Pele had probably the most storied careers in game, scoring greater than 1,000 objectives throughout his glittering profession and profitable the World Cup 3 times — the one participant in historical past to succeed in the feat.
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He put Brazil at the global map because the “land of the beautiful game” — as leaders as disparate as outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro and incoming president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had been fast to say in sparkling tributes.
Outside the clinic within the upscale community of Morumbi, mourners cried, waved Santos flags and hung a banner studying, “Eternal King Pele.”
“We came to say goodbye, to pay a small tribute to him, as I think everyone should do,” stated Jose Carlos Souza Santos, 43.
“Pele represents our passion for football. Everyone who has ever wanted to play football has been inspired by him.”
Alipio Bedaque, a 66-year-old advisor, stated he had rushed to the clinic, like many — however simplest after briefly striking on his prized Santos 1956 reproduction jersey, the yr of Pele’s debut.
He vividly recollects staring at Pele play with Santos, a town 75 kilometers from Sao Paulo.
“You didn’t even see the other players. You just fixated on Pele and what he would do,” Bedaque stated.
“Pele and Santos are what made me fall in love with football.”
But Pele’s legacy may not forestall there, he stated.
“He was a giant worldwide icon, well beyond his sport.”