By Victor Kanayo
Late football star, Edson Arantes do Nascimento, popularly known as Pele, will be laid to rest on the ninth floor of a vertical cemetery.
Reports say the cemetery is close to the Santos football pitch in his home city.
Pele will be laid in the vault at the Memorial Necropole Ecumenica on Tuesday, January 3, just a mile away from the stadium that made him famous.
It was reported that the Brazilian player spent a long time thinking about where he wanted to be buried before deciding on his final resting place by paying homage to his father, Dodinho.
Dodinho, who died in 1996, was a centre-forward who wore the No 9 shirt.
In a mark of respect to his father, Pele chose to be buried on the ninth floor of the world’s tallest, vertical cemetery, the Mirror reports.
The vertical cemetery was built in 1983 and has more than 14,000 vaults. It has a tropical garden, restaurant and even a classic car museum.
Pele died on Thursday December with 29, 2022 following a long battle against cancer at 82.
He is the only man to have won three world cups- in 1958, 1962 and 1970, and is widely regarded to be the greatest player of all time.
Meanwhile, emotional Brazil began paying its respects to football legend Pele on Monday, as his coffin arrived at the stadium where he first took the world’s breath away.
Hundreds of fans began filing into the Vila Belmiro, home to Pele’s longtime club Santos, where the open casket bearing the remains of ‘O Rei’ (The King) was displayed in the centre of the field, and would remain for 24 hours.
The casket was seen arriving ahead of the doors being opened to the public, with Pele’s son Edinho acting as one of the pallbearers, carrying it to the centre circle where it was opened to reveal the late great’s body adorned with flowers.
