Brazil prepares to say goodbye to Pelé as it welcomes a new president

Brazil has been gearing up for one of the most monumental new years in its history as the South America nation prepared to both welcome a new president and say goodbye to one of its most famous sons.

Huge crowds are expected in Brasilia on 1 January to see Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva inaugurated for a four-year term, while a day later football fans will gather in Santos to bid farewell to Pelé, the football legend who died on Thursday.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento died of multiple organ failure after battling colon cancer for more than a year. The 82-year-old former Santos and New York Cosmos player had been in hospital for more than a month.

“The city is in mourning,” said Walter Dias, an 87-year-old journalist who covered Santos during their glory days in the 1960s and remained a friend to both Pelé and his family.

“Everyone here is sad because at the end of the day Pelé was such a part of our lives. He brought us so much joy. It’s like we’ve lost a member of the family.”

Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ( left) earlier this week. Photograph: Adriano Machado/Reuters

Brazilian funerals customarily take place within 24 hours of bereavement, but Pelé’s family reportedly asked for more time to allow family members to gather for what is expected to be an emotional farewell.

Pelé was married three times and had seven children and many more grandchildren. Some live in the United States and others are scattered across Brazil, a nation almost as big as Europe.

Big crowds are expected to converge in the city and surrounding area that is home to almost 2 million people, and the world’s media will also be there in massive numbers.

The outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, who was named Jair after the former Santos player Jair da Rosa Pinto, is not expected to attend the funeral. Reports on Friday said the far-right president would fly to Florida in the coming hours and avoid handing over the sash of office to his leftist successor.

In his final address as president on Friday, Bolsonaro criticised Lula’s new cabinet as well as one of his own supporters who was caught in an alleged plot to blow up a fuel lorry ahead of Sunday’s inauguration.

Brazil’s outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro (left) at the Alvorada Palace, in Brasilia earlier this month. Photograph: Adriano Machado/Reuters

That terrorist threat has darkened the mood in Brasilia, and the weekend is set to be both tense and festive – but whatever happens could be overshadowed by the following day’s events.

Although dignitaries from more than 120 nations are due to attend Lula’s inauguration, Pelé’s death is a truly global story and preparations for his farewell are akin to a state funeral.

Presidents, prime ministers, sports stars and former teammates all sent messages of love and sympathy after the news of his death broke on Thursday afternoon.

Bolsonaro decreed three days of state mourning. The incoming leader, Lula, said: “Few Brazilians have taken our country’s name as far as he has. However different their language was to Portuguese, foreigners from all over the planet always found a way of pronouncing the magic word: ‘Pelé.’”

In a sombre message, the president of Santos, the club where Pelé made his name, said he would never be forgotten.

“Pelé did not die, Pelé is eternal and he will live in our hearts forever,” Andres Rueda said.

Pelé wearing his Santos jersey in 1961. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

“He came here to Santos as a boy, and he left as a king. He was idolised not just by the Santos nation but by the whole of Brazil and by all football fans. Edson, rest in peace. Pelé, keep watching over us.”

Santos said Pelé’s body is being held at the Albert Einstein hospital in São Paulo until the early hours of Monday morning, when it will be taken 50 miles down the coast to the club’s Vila Belmiro stadium.

The coffin will be laid in the middle of the pitch and fans will be allowed into the ground to pay their respects. His body will be laid out in the centre circle for 24 hours before being taken for a private family funeral at 10am on Tuesday.

The funeral cortege will leave the ground and be driven through the streets of the port city, along the road where Pelé’s mother, Celeste, who celebrated her 100th birthday in November, still resides.

The former athlete of the century will be laid to rest at the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica, a vertical cemetery with space for 18,000 bodies that claims to be the tallest in the world.

Pelé chose and paid for a space on the ninth floor of the building almost two decades ago, according to the newspaper O Globo. He wanted to be laid to rest on the ninth floor because his father, Dondinho, wore the No 9 shirt as a player.

The location has a view overlooking the Vila Belmiro stadium and was chosen by Pelé because it transmitted “spiritual peace and tranquility” and “didn’t look like a cemetery”, O Globo said.

“I think there will be lots of people,” Dias said of the public commemoration. “The city is preparing and people will turn out. Pelé is loved by people here and by fans of the club because he projected the name of Santos all over the world.”