Thousands of fans queue for hours to pay their last respects to king of football

Thousands of mourners, including high school students and supreme court justices, began filing past the body of Pelé on Monday on the century-old field where he made his hometown team one of Brazil’s best. The soccer great died on Thursday after a battle with cancer. He was the only player ever to win three World Cups, and he was 82. Pelé’s coffin, draped in the flags of Brazil and the Santos FC football club, was placed on the midfield area of Vila Belmiro, the stadium outside Sao Paulo that was his home for most of his career. A Catholic Mass will be celebrated there Tuesday morning before his burial at a nearby cemetery. Brazil’s newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will come to Vila Belmiro shortly before Pelé’s coffin is removed from the stadium. The storied 16,000-seat stadium was surrounded by mourners, and covered with Pelé-themed decorations. Fans coming out of the stadium said they’d waited three hours in line, standing under a blazing sun. Forty-five years after Pelé played his last game, he’s still a central part of Brazil’s national story. Geovana Sarmento, 17, came with her father, who was wearing a Brazil shirt with Pelé’s name.

 “I am not a Santos fan, neither is my father. But this guy invented Brazil’s national team. He made Santos stronger, he made it big, how could you not respect him? He is one of the greatest people ever, we needed to honor him,” she said.

In the 1960s and 70s, Pelé was perhaps the world’s most famous athlete. He met presidents and queens, and in Nigeria a civil war was put on hold to watch him play. Many Brazilians credit him with putting the country on the world stage. The casket will be ushered through the streets of Santos before his burial Tuesday. Pelé had undergone treatment for colon cancer since 2021. The medical center where he had been hospitalized said he died of multiple organ failure as a result of the cancer. The soccer star led Brazil to World Cup titles in 1958, 1962 and 1970, and remains one of the team’s all-time leading scorers with 77 goals. Neymar Santos Sr., the father another football global star, Neymar, kissed Pele's forehead. He was accompanied by Pele's son Edinho. Neymar tied Pelé’s record during this year’s World Cup in Qatar.