The Brazil legend’s death in São Paulo has prompted an outpouring of tributes from the football world and beyond. Follow live updates with Michael Butler
outside the Albert Einstein hospital in São Paulo, as police, fans and news teams scramble for positions.
“Adeus, Pelé! Brazil bids farewell to the greatest footballer in history” noted a sombre yet celebratory lead story on the UOL site, which described him as not just a footballer but the most important icon in the country’s history. Outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro was initially silent amid rumours about whether he will leave the country before the transfer of power on 1 January. Others quoted Neymar’s post: “Pelé changed everything. He transformed football into an art.”
I’m 64 now. I have been living this game since I was five. We did not see them, until 1970, but all the boys kicking the ball on asphalt or on dusty turf of our growing city wanted to be like those guys whose pictures we saw on the walls of a small booth of the shoemaker down the street, a lucky guy who somehow got them from foreign visitors – Pelé, Garrincha, Didi, Vava….
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