Present at the funeral wake in tribute to Pelé, Gianni Infantino was criticized for his idea of asking each country in the world to rename a stadium in the name of the three-time Brazilian world champion. But not only. A selfie taken by the President of Fifa with relatives of the King also caused a lot of talk. To the point that the Swiss leader wanted to explain himself.
“I am appalled, he wrote in a message on Instagram. I was both honored and touched that teammates and family members of the great Pelé asked me if I could take some pictures with them. And of course I immediately accepted. In the case of the selfie, Pelé’s teammates asked to make one of us all together but they didn’t know how. So to be helpful, I took one of them’s phone and took the photo for him. »
Infantino adds that the criticism does not affect him in this specific case, and that he would be “happy” to be the object of it again if it is to “be useful to a teammate of Pelé”. “I have so much respect and admiration for Pelé and for that ceremony yesterday that I would never do anything that would be disrespectful in any way,” he added.