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By Anthony Nlebem.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has declared a three-day period of mourning in memory of football legend and three-time World Cup winner Pele.
The legendary football icon passed away at Sao Paolo’s Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital on Thursday, December 29, at age 82 following multiple organ failures as a result of the colon cancer he had been battling.
Pele, who is widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers in history, spent the final month of his life in hospital.
Details of Pele’s funeral plans have also been released, with the former Santos stalwart’s coffin to be placed in the centre of the Brazilian club’s pitch at dawn on Monday.
Members of the public, politicians, authorities and celebrities are then expected to have 24 hours from 10am on Monday to visit the coffin and say their own private farewells to a man nicknamed ‘The King of Football’.
A parade will then be held on Tuesday which will see his coffin carried through the streets of Santos, including the neighbourhood where his 100-year-old mother still lives.
Pele will then be laid to rest in a private burial service.
Pele, who scored 643 goals in 659 matches for Santos over an 18-year period, helped Brazil to World Cup success in 1958, 1962 and 1970 before establishing himself as the greatest of all time up to that point as the star of perhaps the best team ever 12 years later.
He remains the youngest player to ever win the competition and the youngest to score in the final after achieving the remarkable feat when he was just 17 years and 249 days old.
His 77-goal international haul still stands as a Brazilian record despite Neymar matching the benchmark in Qatar with a quarter-final strike against Croatia.
Pele is also recognised as scoring a world-record 1,282 goals in 1,366 games, although that total does include non-competitive fixtures and youth games.
A host of the biggest names in football, sport and beyond have paid tribute to one of the most famous, most successful and greatest sportsmen of all time.