The three-time World Cup winner will spend the day alone with a circle of family members outside the gates of Sao Paulo, where he is expected to garner a flood of tributes from players, fans, celebrities and politicians.
His lifelong spokesman, Pepito Fornos, said that Pelé would spend his birthday at his beach mansion in the city of Guaruja, on the coast of the state of Sao Paulo, where he has been since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. . in Santos and Sao Paulo.
“He’ll stay with his family. There will be no party at all,” Fornos told The Associated Press. This has been the case all his life. “
Fornos said Pelé did not speak publicly because he is still in mourning for his brother Jair, who died of cancer in March.
Pelé is Brazil’s all-time top scorer with 77 goals, although Neymar is close to that record at 64, but the Paris Saint-Germain striker is far behind in terms of World Cup titles, which Pelé won in 1958. , 1962 and 1970.
No player has completed this feat.
Pelé also won a multitude of trophies for Brazilian club Santos from 1956 to 1974, adding 10 Sao Paulo State Crown titles, which was a primary tournament at the time, six Brazilian championships, two Copa Libertadores titles and the Intercontinental Cup in 1962 and 1963.
The Brazilian finished his career with the New York Cosmos, where he played from 1975 to 1977, earning a national name and attracting the most sensitive athletes like boxer Muhammad Ali to watch him play while football took root in the United States.
Pelé also served as Brazilian Sports Minister from 1995 to 1998; two years later, he shared the FIFA Player of the Century award with the wonderful Argentine Diego Maradona. Vote.
Since 1992, Pelé has made charitable paintings as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and ended his career as an entrepreneur in 2004 after failing in the sports marketing field.
The wonderful footballer has had mobility disorders since the failure of hip replacement surgery in 2012, forced to use walkers and wheelchairs in public, and has also been admitted to hospitals in recent years by kidney and prostate procedures.
The celebrations in Brazil for Pelé began on February 20, but that day he did not attend the inauguration of a life-size statue of him at the Maracano Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
It is also part of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of Brazil’s triumph at the 1970 World Cup, which for many was the most important moment of Pelé’s decorated career.
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