Pelé’s family have gathered at a São Paulo hospital, prompting concerns about the deteriorating health of the 82-year-old Brazilian football legend.
Two of his daughters have been at his side in the Albert Einstein hospital for most of this week and they were joined on Saturday by his son Edinho, who came from Londrina, 540km away, where he coaches a second division team.
One of his daughters, Kely Nascimento, published a picture on Instagram late on Friday of her hugging her father on his hospital bed with the message: “We’re still here, fighting and with faith. Another night together.” Her sister Flavia Arantes do Nascimento also posted the picture, which showed her sleeping on a couch, on social media.
Edinho shared a picture of him holding his father’s hand. “Dad … my strength is yours,” he wrote.
Pelé has been in hospital since 29 November with complications related to colon cancer that was first diagnosed in September 2021. He has been undergoing chemotherapy ever since but doctors have given few details about his condition.
He also contracted Covid-19 earlier this month and doctors said on Wednesday the cancer had “progressed and [Pelé] required more care related to renal and cardiac dysfunctions”.
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Pelé has been married three times and has other children and it was not clear how many people were at the hospital. However, news his children were coming together prompted fears he was nearing the end of his life.
The hospital has made no comment on Pelé’s condition since Wednesday. Fans from around the world swapped memories of the player online on Saturday and debated his position in the pantheon of football icons.
For most of his career Pelé was widely held to be the greatest player of all time, a status that was hotly contested with the arrival of Argentina’s Diego Maradona in the 1980s. Recent performances by Argentina’s Lionel Messi, most notably in securing his first World Cup title last weekend, have also elevated his status.
Pelé’s fans, however, point to his three World Cup winner’s medals in 1958, 1962 and 1970, the first of which he won as a 17-year-old by scoring six goals across the quarter-final, semi-final and final.
He then went on to make Brazil’s Santos one of the greatest club sides that ever played, winning every title possible. He retired in 1974 but returned to play for the New York Cosmos in what was then the nascent North American soccer league.
His record of 1,281 goals in 1,363 games is still unsurpassed.