There is a neighborhood in Santos called Canal 6. It takes its name from a gully of stagnant water, choked 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 cared for by her family and friends.
The street was quiet yesterday morning. Some locals slowly made their way to the beach in their shorts and flip-flops. A woman wearing an Argentina shirt with Lionel Messi’s name on the back walked her dog and café owners were hosing down the sidewalks in front of their businesses.
The only sign of the chaos that was about to happen was a banner hanging opposite number 25. ‘Obrigado Rei,’ it said. ‘Thank you, King.’
There is a neighborhood in Santos called Canal 6. It takes its name from a canal of stagnant water, choked with plastic bags and cans and squares of old carpet
It runs through the center of Avenida Coronel Joaquim Montenegro where, at number 25, behind a tall sliding gate, Dona Celeste, Pele’s 100-year-old mother, is being cared for by her family and friends.
However, by midday, Canal 6 was at the center of the funeral procession of the greatest football player of all time.
Where once there was peace, now the chaos is almost out of control with thousands of supporters crowding outside the gates of Dona Celeste’s house, waving flags, praying, crying and clapping and waiting for the fire truck to arrive carrying Pele’s coffin.
More than 230,000 mourners poured into Pele’s open casket at Vila Belmiro, the stadium a few miles 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 the newly elected president of Brazil, Lula. Once he had left, Pele’s coffin was carried from the stadium and loaded onto a fire engine, to take him on his final journey.
The truck passed thousands of fans lining the streets and down the beaches on the Santos waterfront before turning left alongside Canal 6.
At number 25, family members appear on the balcony. Some thought they saw Dona Celeste among them but it became clear that Pele’s sister, Maria Lucia, led the crowd in a moving recitation of the Lord’s Prayer.
The street was quiet yesterday morning. Some locals slowly made their way to the beach in their shorts and flip-flops
The only sign of the chaos that was about to happen was a banner hanging opposite number 25. ‘Obrigado Rei,’ it said. ‘Thank you, King’
Brazilians were saddened by the news that Dona Celeste, who was thought to have dementia, did not realize her son was dead and did not appear on the balcony as a fire truck, preceded by hordes of waving Santos fans. giant flags. and police motorcycle outriders, slowly climb opposite Canal 6 and then stop outside number 25.
It remained there for several minutes while Pele’s family and friends stood on the balcony and waved from the windows above and wept and comforted each other.
This part of the funeral procession is a reminder that Brazil is laying to rest a son and a father and a grandfather, not just a man who won three World Cups for his country and was the personification of the beautiful game.
Soon, the fire truck started. It returned to the seafront and then to the Memorial Necropole Ecumenica, a vertical cemetery visible from Vila Belmiro, where he was laid to rest in a family tomb on the ninth floor.
And in some ways, that marked the end of a period of mourning for the man who brought so many football fans around the world so much joy.
In other ways, the mourning for him continued. This was present, soon enough, in the media’s scathing criticism of Brazil’s former greats, especially from the World Cup-winning teams of 1994 and 2002.
At midday, however, Canal 6 became central to the funeral procession of the greatest football player of all time.
While other internationals such as Clodoaldo, Falcao, Mauro Silva and Ze Roberto have paid their respects – those notable for their absence from the two-day funeral ceremony in Santos and not visiting Vila Belmiro include superstars who Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Romario and Kaka.
Many Brazilians were scandalized and saddened by their decisions not to attend.
The unsavory row exposed some of the divisions that exist between different generations of Brazilian greats and the resentment felt by many of the older players from Brazil’s 1970 World Cup-winning squad about how they were ignored and forgotten by the country’s authorities. in recent years.
Brazilian media have indicated that a museum celebrating Pele at Rio’s Maracana stadium has been closed.
Current Brazil striker Neymar, another former Santos player, was also criticized for not attending Pele’s funeral when his Paris Saint-Germain teammates, Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi, had time to visit the Barclays Center in New York on Monday to watch the game between the Brooklyn Nets and the San Antonio Spurs.
Brazil are full of frustration with the current crop of players after their shock exit from the World Cup last month in the quarter-finals.
That resentment collided with grief that gripped the country when Pele died in a Sao Paulo hospital on Thursday at the age of 82.
The pride in him and his three World Cup victories stands in stark contrast to the anxiety Brazilians feel about the direction their football has taken and how far it has deviated from the style that brought them so much success in the days of Pele is messy.
Where once there was peace, now there is an almost uncontrolled riot of thousands of supporters crowding outside the doors of Dona Celeste’s house, waving flags, praying, crying and clapping and waiting for the fire truck to arrive carrying Pele’s coffin.
More than 230,000 mourners filed past Pele’s open casket at Vila Belmiro, the stadium a few miles away where he played for Santos for 18 years and made the team, and the city, synonymous with his greatness
When he played, Brazilian stars played for Brazilian clubs. Now, they leave for Europe earlier and earlier in their careers. The latest wonderkid of their domestic game, Endrick, was just under 16 and had yet to play a first-team game for his club, Palmeiras, when Real Madrid courted him.
He has since agreed to sign for the Spanish giants and will be out of Brazilian club football as he turns 18 in July next year.
It is another symbol of the way that the strength of Brazilian football is being undermined by the financial strength of European clubs. And as frustration with the situation grew, so did the reputation of Pele and his teammates from the 1970s.
I spoke to one of the teammates, Paulo Cezar Caju, who played against England in that World Cup, in a café in Rio recently.
‘One of the biggest disappointments for me was how Brazil played in 1994,’ Caju said.
‘That was the beginning of the downfall of Brazilian football, and art and the beautiful game. Their style was very pragmatic and defensive, but because we won, that affected what happened afterwards. We gave all importance to winning but not performing, not playing well.
‘Brazil played in the 1982 World Cup and they lost but who cares, it was incredible. Nobody talks about the 1994 side. We don’t celebrate that. Brazilian football has paid a high price so far for what happened in ’94 in terms of the quality of football played. Good football is gone. It’s very sad.’
Feelings of nostalgia for a lost era followed the fire engine carrying Pele’s coffin away from Canal 6 and the family members waving from the balcony and Dona Celeste lying inside.
Again it passed the beaches as Pele was finally getting ready to be laid to rest and there, on the golden sands of Santos, ring after ring of children stood round and round playing keepy-uppy, laughing and dancing and dancing football in the sun. To them at least, the good game lives on.
