‘Look over there, Dona Celeste lives in that residential complex. Let’s wave to her and thank her for bringing such a great king into the world!” Emotionally, Rosangela da Costa Silva stands with her 10-year-old son among thousands of people with flags in the black and white colors of the Santos football club when a fire truck arrives in the distance. On the red truck is Pelé’s coffin, which is being driven along the beach in a procession of honor. The procession also passes the house of his hundred-year-old mother Dona (Mrs.) Celeste, a highlight of the farewell of o Rei do Futebolthe football king, for which the Brazilians spent two days.
But in fact it is not a farewell, “Pelé is eternal,” says Ronaldo Santos Silva, who, together with his brother Marcos and son Anderson, shuffles foot by foot in the kilometre-long line towards the Vila Belmiro stadium in Santos, together with his brother Marcos and son Anderson. There, on the center spot, under a large tent, the coffin with Pelé is laid out. It was his last wish.
In his hands, Santos Silva holds a bunch of red roses and a small Bible. Drops of sweat slide down his nose to his lips. The sun is shining brightly this Brazilian summer, it is almost thirty degrees. “I would do anything to be able to say goodbye to Pele. What this man has meant to us Brazilians, and to the whole world, cannot be put into words”, says Santos Silva with a lump in his throat. “After Jesus Christ comes Pele. Even if I have to stand here in the sun for hours, it is an honor to be able to do this.”.
Son Anderson (15) carries a large cloth with Pelé’s signature printed on it. He never saw Pelé play or consciously experienced it, he grew up with Neymar as a hero. “But we young people also adore Pele. You grow up in Brazil with a sense of reverence for him. When I watch his goals on YouTube I think: “Wow this man, who played like that, was way ahead of his time”.
After an hour the queue has moved considerably, the entrance is now in sight and Ronaldo Santos Silva is now a bit more in the shadow. “Once I’m inside I’m going to pray for him, and I hope I can see something of his face,” says Santos Silva. “Since Pelé passed away, I feel sad. But I also feel proud. He was more than just the best football player, he provided our self-awareness, our Brazilian identity.” Images from television channel Globo show how people try to touch Pelé who is lying under a transparent cloth and cry.
Mega spectacle
It was to be expected that in the country where football is almost regarded as a religion, a grand farewell is being said to the man who made football into an art and who put Brazil on the international map with three World Cups. But the fact that the mega spectacle – in which an estimated 230,000 visitors passed by the coffin – made Brazil feel like one country again, freed from the polarization of recent times, gave the farewell and funeral extra meaning. The fierce and violent election campaign. The new president Lula da Silva who was inaugurated on New Year’s Day while part of the population remains furious behind Bolsonaro. It all seemed to disappear for a while.
“Today we are united around Pele’s coffin,” says Marcos Freitas, a schoolteacher from São Paulo. “I am sure that today I am among supporters of Bolsonaro. But political party, skin color or social class does not matter now. We are all grieving,” he says. It says a lot about the connector that Pelé was.
The fact that the top footballer grew up in a Brazil where slavery had been abolished only 52 years earlier when he was born in 1940 made him a great example for many black Brazilians and people of color.
Also for Sabrina Franca (41) who comes out through the exit after three hours of waiting and saying goodbye. She’s a little disappointed. “I wanted to say so much to him and take a good look at him. But the security people gave us very little time,” she says. As a black Brazilian, Pelé also symbolized the fight against prejudice in a country where racism is deeply rooted. “My grandfather is a peer of Pelé. He told how Pelé not only paved the way for many black players, but also for black Brazilians, like my grandfather. Because of the successes of the young Pelé, life became a lot easier for my grandfather, he was less discriminated against.”
No room for criticism
Pelé was an icon and he showed that black Brazilians could achieve more than the prejudices that prevail in Brazilian class society. “For a black child growing up now, it must have a huge impact that people from all over the world come and say goodbye to Pelé on this day,” says Sabrina Franca.
There is little room today for the criticism that also exists about Pelé. That he could have done much more in the fight against racism. And during the military dictatorship (1964-1985) would have allowed himself to be put to the service of the military, and would not have spoken out against the oppression.
These days, love and passion for Pelé are paramount. And the loss. This also becomes visible when a doppelgänger suddenly appears between the crowds around the stadium. The man – slightly darker than Pelé – resembles the deceased football hero like two drops of water and wears a striped Santos shirt. The similarities are so strong that people start screaming, clinging to him and wanting to take a picture with him.
When night falls over the Vila Belmiro stadium, the line is still long. It is summer holidays and there are many families with children. Rosangela da Costa Silva wants her son to experience this historic moment. “Later he will tell his children how Brazil honored their king,” she says. A day later they are among the crowd on the beach. The fire truck arrives and people start screaming. Whether Pele’s mother, Dona Celeste knows that her son has died and is now paying tribute to her house is still the question. According to relatives, the very old mother is no longer clear-headed. Rosangela da Costa Silva: “But she will feel that we sympathize with her and her son.”
A version of this article also appeared in the January 4, 2023 newspaper