The FIFA president today expressed his gratitude to Cape Verde for the initiative to name the National Stadium after Pelé, in a message left on his Instagram account, after the death of the Brazilian footballer.
“Thank you very much Cape Verde! I would like to thank the Prime Minister, Ulisses Silva, the Minister of Sports, Carlos do Canto, and the Cabo Verdean Football Federation, in the person of its president, Mário Semedo, for the fact that Cape Verde has announced its intention to give the name of Pelé to the National Stadium”, can be read in the note left by Gianni Infantino on the social network.
For Infantino, this pioneering gesture dignifies the country and honors Pelé’s memory, adding that he hopes that “more stadiums and places where football is played around the world can also come to be associated with this global homage”.
Pelé died on Thursday, aged 82, at the Albert Einstein Israeli hospital, in São Paulo, following the failure of multiple organs, a result of the progression of colon cancer.
The former footballer had been hospitalized since November 29 at that hospital for chemotherapy treatment for a colon tumor and treatment for a respiratory infection.
Born on October 23, 1940 in the city of Três Corações, in Minas Gerais, Pelé was the only soccer player three times world champion, in 1958, 1962 and 1970, scored 77 goals in the 92 caps for the Brazilian national team and played for the Brazilian club Santos and by Cosmos, from the United States.
He was also Minister of Sport in the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, between 1995 and 1998, and was elected sportsman of the century by the International Olympic Committee (1999) and footballer of the century by FIFA (2000).
