"He is the greatest person in the world": Pele's coffin carried into Santos soccer stadium for wake

Brazilian soccer star Pele’s coffin arrived on Monday at the coastal city of Santos, his hometown club, ahead of a massive wake at Vila Belmiro stadium.

A hearse escorted by a motorcade left São Paulo’s Albert Einstein Hospital, where Pele died on Dec. 29, 2022, in the early hours to Santos where a wake and memorial are set to take place in the coming days.

Fans waited for the coffin outside the stadium, waving flags and taking photographs with their mobile phones when the hearse passed by.

The president of Torcida Jovem dos Santos, Cosmo Damiao, said he saw homeless people crying and applauding the hearse as Pele was a great person.

"He is the greatest person in the world," Damiao said.

Pele, whose given name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, died at the age of 82 "due to multiple organ failures resulting from the progression of colon cancer associated with his previous medical condition," the hospital said in a statement.

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