FIFA President Gianni Infantino has lashed out at criticism of his photos taken during the wake for Brazilian soccer legend Pele.
“I want to make it clear that I felt very honored when teammates and family members of the great Pele asked me if I could take some photos with them. And of course I said yes immediately,” wrote the world governing body on Instagram.
Some of Pelé’s former teammates at FC Santos asked him on Monday, not far from the late idol’s open coffin, “to take a selfie of all of us together, but they didn’t know how to do it. To help them, I took it mobile phone of one of them and took the picture of all of us for him,” Infantino defended.
Pelé, who became world champion in 1958, 1962 and 1970, died last Thursday at the age of 82 as a result of cancer.
After three days of national mourning, his coffin was set up in the stadium of his ex-club FC Santos for 24 hours from Monday morning so that companions and fans could say goodbye to him.
Pele was buried with his family on Tuesday.