Football legend Pele’s body is to be exhumed to prove whether he is the father of a woman claiming to be his love child after a DNA test shows there is a ‘high probability’ of a blood tie.
- Football icon is said to have agreed to a DNA test before his death in 2022
- But the family’s lawyer says they will fight any exhumation request
A woman claiming to be the secret daughter of football legend Pelé has demanded the exhumation of his body to prove whether he is her father.
Maria do Socorro Azevedo, 60, instructed a lawyer to take the step, almost five years after she first filed a paternity lawsuit.
Reports overnight, quoting lawyer Marcos Fernando dos Santos Sousa, said initial tests had been negative but that a DNA test had shown ‘high possibilities’ of a blood link with the Brazilian centre-forward.
Mr dos Santos Sousa said they now had “no choice” but to request the exhumation of Pele’s body to “resolve the situation.”
Pelé, who died on December 29, 2022 at the age of 82 in a hospital in Sao Paulo after a tumor was removed from his colon, acknowledged in his will the possibility that he could have another child. He reportedly agreed to a DNA test, but died before it could take place.
Pelé married three times and officially has seven children, including a stepdaughter. Last year it was reported that the football icon had left £13 million to a secret daughter in his will, after denying he was her father all his life.
Pele celebrates after winning the 1970 World Cup match in Mexico against Italy
Maria claims to be Pelé’s daughter and says she is not interested in money
Pele and wife third wife Márcia Aoki, who received 30 percent of his estate
Maria do Socorro Azevedo spoke publicly on a Brazilian TV program on Sunday about her claims that she is Pele’s daughter, insisting she was not interested in his money.
She said her late mother never told the former Brazil and Santos forward that she was pregnant with their child after an affair in Sao Luis in the Brazilian state of Maranhao.
Maria, from the state of Piaui in northeastern Brazil, said she first decided to take a DNA test in 2019 while working as a maid in Sao Paulo.
Pele left 30 percent of his estate to his widow, third wife Marica Aoki, while another 60 percent was divided among his children and 10 percent to two grandchildren.
His net worth at the time of his death was estimated at around £78 million.
Two of his children, Edinho Nascimento and Flavia Christina, agreed to DNA testing after the reading of their father’s will.
If Maria do Socorro Azevedo is eventually recognized as his eighth child, she could claim her share of the estate awarded to her siblings.
A lawyer acting on behalf of Pele’s family, Augusto Miglioli, said his family would contest any exhumation on the grounds that DNA tests already carried out had shown that Maria was not the footballer’s daughter.
Pelé was ordered to take a DNA test to prove Maria’s paternity in 2022, before his death.
The test was not carried out for health reasons, but Pelé left in his will the need to prove paternity, locals said. reports.
Grandson Arthur Spies (right) shared a photo with the football legend before his death
Brazilian Pele celebrates after scoring the opening goal in the 1970 World Cup final against Italy
Pele, the only player to win the World Cup three times, was buried last January in a mausoleum he bought 19 years earlier at the Memorial Ecumenical Cemetery.
It’s a high-rise building in Santos, the Brazilian port city where ‘The King’ played most of his career, that holds the Guinness world record for being the tallest cemetery in the world.