The Christ the Redeemer statue is illuminated with a picture of Pele’s Brazilian jersey, as a tribute to the soccer legend on his one-year death anniversary, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on December 29, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP
Brazilians paid a number of tributes to soccer legend Pelé on Friday, one year after the three-time World Cup winner’s death at age 82 due to a colon most cancers.
A ceremony held at Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer, certainly one of the South American nation’s most well-known postcard areas, featured a projection of a Brazil shirt with Pelé’s identify and quantity 10 on the statue and a message from Pope Francis. Pelé was a religious Catholic all through his life.
“Pelé, as Mr. Edson Arantes do Nascimento became globally known, was undoubtedly an athlete who showed in his life all positive traits of a sportsman. The memory of ‘the King of Football’ remains indelible in the minds of many, and it stimulates new generations to seek in sport a means to strengthen the bonds of unity among us,” the pontiff mentioned in a letter as a native orchestra performed.
Other non secular ceremonies had been held at the Museu Pelé in Santos, the port metropolis he put on the map together with his targets and success for Santos FC, and in the small metropolis of Tres Corações, the place do Nascimento was born in 1940.
Santos FC additionally held a tribute at its Vila Belmiro Stadium, the place Edson Cholbi do Nascimento, certainly one of Pelé’s sons, launched 10 white ballons from the heart circle. Pelé’s funeral was held at the stadium.
Football’s governing physique FIFA additionally paid its respects with a video of highlights of the Brazilian nice with a message: “Pelé’s legacy will always live on.”
Earlier this year, a Brazilian dictionary selected to pay a tribute to Pelé by including his identify as an adjective to use when describing somebody who’s “exceptional, incomparable, unique.”
The announcement by the Michaelis dictionary on Wednesday is a part of a marketing campaign that gathered greater than 125,000 signatures to honour the late soccer nice’s affect past his sport.
Pelé spent practically 20 years enchanting followers and dazzling opponents as the sport’s most prolific scorer with Brazilian membership Santos and the Brazil nationwide workforce. In the dialog about soccer’s biggest, solely the late Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are talked about alongside.
