His funeral will also be held on Monday and Tuesday from the stadium where Brazilian football star Pele played the best matches of his career.
Santos, the club where Pele played in Brazil, said in a statement that the public will be able to pay their final respects at the Vila Belmiro stadium in Sao Paulo state.
Pele, whose full name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, died on Thursday after a long battle with cancer. He was 82 years old.
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And the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who leaves office on Sunday, declared three days of mourning, and said in a statement that Pele is “a great citizen and patriot who raises the name of Brazil wherever he goes.”
Bolsonaro’s successor, President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, wrote on Twitter that “few Brazilians have carried the name of our country as much as it has.”
Santos said the coffin of the three-time World Cup champion will leave the Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo early Monday morning and will be placed in the center of the stadium.
The visit will start on Monday at 10 am and end the next day at the same time.
Pele’s coffin will be carried through the streets of Santos and will pass in front of the home of his 100-year-old mother, Celeste. Recent reports in the Brazilian media indicate that Pele’s mother cannot leave her bed while she is not conscious.
Burial will take place at Memorial Necropole Ecumenica, a columnar cemetery in Santos. He will only bring the family.
Pele owns a house in Santos, where he lived most of his life, and spent his last years in the city of Guaruja.
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Pele had a polyp removed from his colon in September 2021. Neither his family nor the hospital has said whether it has spread to other organs. He returned to Albert Einstein Hospital on November 29 with coronavirus and a respiratory infection.
Last week, the hospital said in a statement that cancer had progressed to him.
Pele led Brazil to World Cup wins in 1958, 1962 and 1970 and remains one of the team’s all-time leading scorers with 77 goals. Neymar equaled Pele’s record during the World Cup in Qatar this year.
Information from Reuters and the Associated Press was used in this story.
