Pelé’s legacy is already widespread throughout the world, but this time it’ll take on a new form.
At Pelé’s funeral in Brazil on Monday, FIFA president Gianni Infantino told local reporters the organization is “going to ask every country in the world to name one of their football stadiums with the name of Pelé.”
In 2021, Brazil differed on renaming the iconic Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro after Pelé and eventually kept it as is.
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One country, though, has already renamed a stadium following Infantino’s request.
Cape Verde, which comprises a group of islands west of the coast of Senegal, has renamed its 15,000-capacity Estádio Nacional de Cabo Verde, located just outside the capital Praia and home of the country’s national team, to Pelé Stadium.
It is the country’s biggest stadium, with the Estádio de Várzea, located in Praia, seating 8,000 people.
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“Cape Verde and Brazil have a history and culture that go hand in hand, considering they are two sister countries, linked by language and very similar identities,” Ulisses Correira e Silva, Cape Verde’s prime minister, said in a statement on Facebook.
"And with the physical disappearance of Edson Arantes de Nascimento, King Pelé, who soon became a planetary figure, an icon of the masses showing that sport has the power to unite the world, it is now our wish to pay tribute to him.”
“As a tribute and recognition to this figure that makes us all great, I manifest the intention of naming our national stadium as ‘Pelé Stadium’, in an initiative that, I believe, will be followed by several countries around the world,” Silva added.
Pelé died on Dec. 29, 2022. He was 82.
