The Brazilian soccer legend will be laid to rest on Tuesday and his funeral was held on Monday and Neymar was not present.
The funeral of Santos legend and football icon Pelé was held at the Urbano Caldeira Stadium yesterday, with many football dignitaries and FIFA President Gianni Infantino attending the wake. Thousands of fans of Santos and Brazilian football were also able to pay their respects to the three-time world champion at the stadium.
One person who was expected to wake up but didn’t was Brazil’s national team’s joint leading scorer Neymar. Neymar remained in Paris to train with PSG but said the news was not received well by the Brazilian media. One of the key points of the press was that Neymar once asked PSG to allow him to enjoy the carnival in Rio de Janeiro, but he could not get permission to attend Pelé’s wake.
Neymar and Pelé have shared similar careers, with both players rising to fame at Santos and both winning the Copa Libertadores. Pelé anointed Neymar as one of the best players in Brazilian football in a long time.
Why didn’t Neymar go to Pelé’s wake?
PSG did not want their players, especially those who missed training due to the World Cup, to miss any more training sessions. Still Brasil Urgente presenter Jose Luiz Datena, stated that he felt Neymar could have done more to attend such a milestone event.
Neymar wrote on his Instagram at the time of Pelé’s death, “Before Pele, ’10’ was just a number… I read this sentence somewhere, at some point in my life. But this beautiful sentence is incomplete. I would say that before Pele, football was just a sport. Pele changed everything.
He turned football into art, into entertainment. He gave a voice to the poor, to blacks and above all he gave visibility to Brazil. Football and Brazil have raised their status thanks to the King! He is gone, but his magic will remain. Pele is ETERNAL!”
