Mausoleum of football legend Pele opens to public in Brazil
Two golden statues of the three-time World Cup winner welcome visitors to the tomb in Santos.
A mausoleum built for Pele’s gold coffin has opened to visitors more than five months after the Brazilian football legend died of colon cancer.
The mausoleum, located on the second floor of a high cemetery in Santos, outside Sao Paulo, opened Monday and welcomes visitors with two gold statues of Pele and an artificial turf field.
The walls feature images of fans in a stadium with an endless soundtrack of cheering in the background.
Considered one of the – if not the – greatest footballer of all time, Pele was buried in January following a funeral that saw hundreds of thousands of people flock to Santos to pay their respects, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“This was made with a lot of love by people who knew him, who lived with him. It has the essence of what he was,” said Edson Cholbi do Nascimento, one of Pele’s sons, after a small ceremony with family and friends by the Associated Press news agency.
Pele, who was known as “The King”, is the only player to win the World Cup three times. He won the coveted trophy in 1958, 1962 and 1970.
In 2000, the world football association FIFA named him player of the century together with Diego Maradona, who died in 2020.
The International Olympic Committee also named Pele “athlete of the century” in 1999.
After his retirement in 1977, Pele served as a “champion for sport” for the United Nations cultural organization, UNESCO, and helped promote physical education around the world. He also supported UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, as a goodwill ambassador.
He died on December 29 at the age of 82 after a long battle with cancer. The mausoleum was planned by the owner of the cemetery, Pepe Alstut, who passed away in 2018.
Alstut hoped the mausoleum would be on the ninth floor and oversee the Santos club’s Vila Belmiro stadium, where Pele played for 18 years. The player’s family instead buried him on the second floor for easier access by fans.
“I am shaking. The energy of this place is unreal,” Erica Nascimento, a tearful 42-year-old economist, told the AP.
Former footballer Roberto Milano, 56, was also moved.
“He is part of my life,” said Milano. “As we get older, we should follow the best role models. Perhaps he was the greatest of them all.”
Last month, a Brazilian dictionary added “Pele” as an adjective describing someone who is “exceptional, incomparable, unique.”
The announcement by the Michaelis dictionary was part of a campaign that collected more than 125,000 signatures to honor the late footballer.