Three days of national mourning have been announced in Brazil after the death of soccer star Pele.
The Brazilian icon who is considered as the greatest footballer to have graced the soccer pitch died on Thursday at the age of 82 following a long-term battle with cancer.
The government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who leaves office on Sunday, has since declared three days of national mourning, saying in a statement that Pele was “a great citizen and patriot, raising the name of Brazil wherever he went.”
A 24-hour wake will be held for Pele on Monday in the centre of the field at the stadium of Santos, the hometown club where he began playing as a teenager and quickly rose to fame, it has now been revealed.
On Tuesday, a procession carrying Pele’s coffin will take place through the streets of Santos, passing the neighbourhood where his 100-year-old mother lives
It will end at the Ecumenical Memorial Necropolis cemetery, where he will be buried in a private ceremony.
In his reaction, President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, wrote on Twitter that “few Brazilians carried the name of our country as far as he did.”
Pele’s death was confirmed on his Instagram account on Thursday, and has since seen an outpouring of tributes from across the worlds of sport, politics and popular culture.