“Now he will be able to rest”, the King joined in his final resting place

The remains of Pelé, the eternal number 10 who marked generations of football lovers, joined his final resting place on Tuesday: a 200m2 mausoleum in the vertical cemetery of the Brazilian city of Santos, where a huge crowd of fans paid him a heartfelt tribute.

“Now he will be able to rest,” Edinho, one of his six children still alive, told reporters at the entrance to the ecumenical necropolis where the funeral took place in the intimacy of the family.

This necropolis, an ultra-modern 14-storey building with an immaculate facade, is the highest vertical cemetery in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records. On the first floor, the mausoleum where Pelé’s coffin was laid is reminiscent of a football stadium, with its synthetic turf and photos of the “King”, a cemetery communications manager confirmed on Tuesday.

Before the funeral, the Brazilian people’s last tribute to the triple world champion ended with a moving four-hour procession through the streets of Santos, a seaside resort town and the largest port in South America, 75 km from Sao Paolo. More than 230,000 people, including President Lula, came to gather in front of the coffin during the funeral wake, which lasted 24 hours.

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