There’s a neighborhood in Santos called Canal 6. It gets its name from a canyon of stagnant water clogged with plastic bags and cans and squares of old carpet.
It runs down the middle of Avenida Coronel Joaquim Montenegro, where at number 25, behind a high sliding gate, Dona Celeste, Pele’s 100-year-old mother, is being cared for by her family and friends.
The street was quiet yesterday morning. A few locals in shorts and flip-flops padded slowly to the beach. A lady in an Argentinian shirt with Lionel Messi’s name on the back walked her dog and cafe owners hosed down the sidewalks in front of their shops.
The only sign of the impending chaos was a banner hung opposite number 25. “Obrigado Rei,” it said. “Thank you, king.”
There’s a neighborhood in Santos called Canal 6. It gets its name from a canyon of stagnant water clogged with plastic bags and cans and squares of old carpet
It runs down the middle of Avenida Coronel Joaquim Montenegro, where at number 25, behind a high sliding gate, Dona Celeste, Pele’s 100-year-old mother, is being cared for by her family and friends
By midday, however, Canal 6 had become the focal point of the funeral procession for the greatest footballer ever.
Where once there was peace, there was now uncontrollable chaos as thousands of supporters thronged the gates of Dona Celeste’s home, waving flags, saying prayers, crying and applauding as they waited for the fire truck to arrive with Pele’s coffin.
More than 230,000 mourners had streamed past Pele’s open coffin in Vila Belmiro, the stadium a few kilometers away where he played for Santos for 18 years and made the team and the city synonymous with his greatness.
Among the last to pay their respects was newly elected Brazilian President Lula. Once he left, Pele’s coffin was carried out of the stadium and loaded into a fire engine to take him on his final journey.
The truck weaved its way through tens of thousands of fans lining the streets and headed down to the beaches on the Santos coast before turning left at Canal 6.
At number 25, family members had appeared on the balcony. Some thought they spotted Dona Celeste among them, but it turned out to be Pele’s sister, Maria Lucia, who had led the crowd with a moving rendition of the Lord’s Prayer.
The street was quiet yesterday morning. A few locals in shorts and flip-flops padded slowly to the beach
The only sign of the impending chaos was a banner hung opposite number 25. “Obrigado Rei,” it said. ‘thank you king’
Brazilians were saddened by the news that Dona Celeste, who is believed to be suffering from dementia, does not realize her son is dead and she did not appear on the balcony as a fire engine, followed by hordes of Santos fans waving giant flags and Police motorcycle outriders, moved slowly on the opposite side of channel 6 and then turned to come to a stop in front of number 25.
It stayed there for a few minutes as Pele’s family and friends stood on the balcony and waved from the upstairs windows and cried and comforted each other.
This part of the funeral procession was a reminder that Brazil was burying a son, father and grandfather, not just a man who had won three World Cups for his country and become the embodiment of beautiful football.
The fire truck then drove away. It went back to the coast and then to the Memorial Necropole Ecumenica, a vertical cemetery within sight of Vila Belmiro, where he was buried in a family plot on the ninth floor.
And in a way, that ended the mourning for the man who brought so much joy to so many football fans around the world.
In other ways, the mourning for him continued. It was most immediately present in the intense media criticism of former Brazilian greats, particularly from the 1994 and 2002 World Cup teams.
By midday, however, Canal 6 had become the focal point of the funeral procession for the greatest footballer ever
While other internationals such as Clodoaldo, Falcao, Mauro Silva and Ze Roberto paid their respects – those absent from the two-day memorial services in Santos and who did not attend Vila Belmiro included superstars Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Romario and Kaka.
Many Brazilians were outraged and saddened by their decision not to participate.
The unseemly row exposed some of the divisions that exist between the different generations of Brazilian greats and the resentment many of the veteran players from Brazil’s 1970 World Cup winning squad feel for how they have been ignored and forgotten by the country’s authorities in the past years.
It was pointed out in the Brazilian media that a museum honoring Pele at the Maracana stadium in Rio has been closed.
Brazil’s current striker Neymar, another former Santos player, was also criticized for not attending Pele’s funeral when his Paris Saint-Germain team-mates Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi found time on Monday to leave the Barclays center in Visiting New York to watch the game between them Brooklyn Nets and the San Antonio Spurs.
Brazil are sobered by their current player roster after surprisingly dropping out in the quarter-finals at last month’s World Cup.
That disillusionment clashed with the grief that gripped the country when Pele died in Sao Paulo hospital last Thursday at the age of 82.
Pride in him and his three World Cup victories was in apparent contrast to the dismay Brazilians feel at the direction their football has taken and how far it has strayed from the style that brought them so much success in Pele’s happier days has bestowed.
Where once there was peace, there was now uncontrollable chaos as thousands of supporters thronged the gates of Dona Celeste’s home, waving flags, saying prayers, crying and applauding as they waited for the fire truck to arrive with Pele’s coffin
More than 230,000 mourners had streamed past Pele’s open coffin in Vila Belmiro, the stadium a few kilometers away where he played for Santos for 18 years and made the team and the city synonymous with his greatness
When he played, Brazil’s stars played for Brazilian clubs. Now they are leaving for Europe earlier and earlier in their careers. The youngest prodigy of their native football, Endrick was not even 16 and had yet to play a first-team game for his club Palmeiras when he was courted by Real Madrid.
He has since agreed to sign for the Spanish giants and will be lost to Brazilian club football next July when he turns 18.
It’s yet another symbol of how the strength of Brazilian football is being eroded by the financial power of European clubs. And as disenchantment with the situation grows, so does the refurbishment of the image of Pele and his teammates from 1970.
I recently spoke to one of those team-mates, Paulo Cezar Caju, who played against England at this World Cup, in a café in Rio.
“One of the biggest disappointments for me was how Brazil played in 1994,” said Caju.
“That was the beginning of the decline of Brazilian football, art and the beautiful game. Their style was very pragmatic and defensive, but because we won it affected what happened afterwards. We did everything we could to win, but not to play, not to play nicely.
“Brazil played in the 1982 World Cup and they lost but who cares, it was fantastic. No one talks about the 1994 side. We don’t celebrate that. Brazilian football has until now paid a heavy price for what happened in 1994 in terms of the quality of football played. The beautiful football is gone. It’s very sad.’
These feelings of nostalgia for a lost era followed the fire truck carrying Pele’s coffin away from Canal 6 and family members waving from the balcony and Dona Celeste lying inside.
It cruised past the beaches again as it prepared to finally put Pele to rest and there, on the golden sands of Santos, children stood in circle after circle, playing keep-upy, laughing and dancing and juggling in the sunshine Footballs. At least in them, the beautiful game lives on.