Santos FC will keep his number 10 shirt, because it was Pelé’s wish. “He clearly said that he didn’t like the idea,” said the president of the Brazilian club following hearing an interview that ‘O Rei’ gave in 2017.
The president of Santos FC, Andrés Rueda, said this Saturday that the club where football was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento ‘Skin’ he will keep his number 10 shirtbecause it has been discovered that this was the wish of the ‘King’ of football.
Pelé died last Thursday at the age of 82 as a result of complications from colon cancer that had been detected months before and, among the many tributes in his memory, the Santos club he had considered the possibility of definitively withdrawing the number 10.
However, in statements to local media, Rueda explained that in recent days an interview that Pelé gave to a journalist was discovered in 2017in which he was asked directly regarding the possibility of Santos retiring the number 10.
“He clearly said he didn’t like the idea.“, pointed out Rueda, who pointed out that, following that statement by Pelé himself, the idea has been scrapped by the club board.
In that way, the shirt 10 that Pelé immortalized at Santos, will continue, at least for the next season, in the hands of Venezuelan Yeferson Soteldo.
Santos advances in the preparations for the wake of ‘O Rei’
This Saturday, Santos made progress in the preparations for the Pele’s wakewhich will begin next Monday and will last 24 hours.
It will be on the pitch of the Vila Belmiro stadium, in the city of Santos, which already has two white tents set up to receive the thousands of fans who wish to say goodbye to ‘O Rei’.
One of the tents, located in the center of the pitch, will house the coffin with the mortal remains of Pelé and the chairs where his relatives will sit; and the other, on one side, will be reserved for authorities.
Fans will be able to circulate on a walkway arranged on the grass, parallel to the central tent, regarding five meters from the place where the coffin will be located.
On Tuesday, following concluding the wake, there will be a funeral procession that will go through the streets of Santosa port city located regarding 80 kilometers from Sao Paulo, and which will pass through the Canal 6 area, where he lives Pele’s motherCeleste Arantes, who has 100 years old.
Finally, the procession will head towards the Ecumenical Necropolis Memorial Cemeterywhere Pelé’s remains will be buried in a private ceremony, reserved for family members.