The date of Pele’s funeral has been confirmed as outgoing Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro declared three days of mourning for the footballing legend, who died on Thursday.
Pele, who will be laid to rest on Monday, January 2, was 82 and had been suffering from advanced colon cancer.
Tributes have subsequently poured in from the worlds of football, sport and beyond, with Barack Obama, Neymar and Lionel Messi among those to pay their respects.
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In a statement, Pele’s former club Santos said: “The body of the greatest football player of all time will be laid to rest at Estadio Urbano Caldeira, in Vila Belmiro, where he enchanted the world.”
The body will go straight from the Albert Einstein Hospital to the Stadium at dawn on Monday [January 2] and the coffin will be placed in the centre of the lawn.
“The public wake is expected to begin at 10am.”
Bolsonaro, who will depart as president on January 1, wrote a decree that said, per Brazilian news outlet G1: “Official mourning is declared throughout the country, for a period of three days, counted from the date of publication of this Decree, as a sign of regret for the death of Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pele, a former football player.”
Pele was one of the most celebrated footballers of all time, winning the World Cup three times – in 1958, 1962 and 1970.