FIFA president Gianni Infantino said he was “dismayed” after he was criticised for posing for selfies just a few metres behind Pele’s open coffin.
Brazilians flooded the streets to say a final farewell to late football legend Pele, widely considered the greatest player in history.
After three days of national mourning streams of fans, politicians and football dignitaries descended on the southeastern city of Santos for the wake and funeral procession of the player known as “The King,” who died last week at age 82.
Santos FC, the club where Pele spent most of his storied career, said some 250,000 people had attended his 24-hour wake in the Vila Belmiro stadium, where mourners continued arriving straight through the night.
Infantino, who was in attendance at the event, was seen taking a selfie with a group near Pele’s open casket, prompting widespread criticism.
“What cannot be argued is that snapping smiley photos so close to the body of a heroic figure is hugely misjudged,” wrote The Telegraph’s Thom Gibbs.
“This is oddly vapid behaviour from Infantino, and not for the first time.”
Taking to Instagram, Infantino responded to the criticism on Wednesday and claimed there had been a misunderstanding.
“Just landed from my trip to Brazil where I had the privilege to participate in the beautiful homage to Pelé that took place at Vila Belmiro, in Santos,” he wrote.
“I am dismayed after having been informed that I am apparently being criticised by some people for having taken a selfie and pictures at the ceremony yesterday.
“I would like to clarify that I was both honoured and humbled that teammates and family members of the great Pelé asked me if I could take a few photos with them. And obviously I immediately agreed.
“In the case of the selfie, Pelé’s teammates asked to do a selfie of all of us together but they didn’t know how to do it. So, to be helpful, I took the phone of one of them and took the photo of all of us for him.
“If being helpful to a teammate of Pelé creates criticism I’m happy to take it and will continue to be helpful wherever I can to those having contributed to write legendary pages of football.
“I have so much respect and admiration for Pelé and for that ceremony yesterday that I would never do anything that would be disrespectful in any way whatsoever.
“I hope that those who published or said things without knowing and without seeking information could have the decency and courage to admit they were wrong and correct what they said.”
Draped in the black-and-white flag of Santos FC and the green-and-yellow one of Brazil, Pele’s coffin was then placed atop a firetruck and given a massive funeral procession through the city.
Huge crowds of fans, some in tears, lined the streets and gathered on balconies to say a last goodbye, chanting “1,000 goals, only Pele!” The procession included an emotional stop at the house where Pele’s 100-year-old mother, Celeste Arantes, still lives.
“Dona Celeste,” as she is known, has cognitive difficulties, and is unaware her world-famous son has died, according to the family. But Pele’s sister, Maria Lucia, who lives with her, appeared on the beige house’s balcony surrounded by family.
The 78-year-old clasped her hands and tearfully bowed her head to the massive crowd in gratitude.
The procession ended at the port city’s Memorial Cemetery, near the stadium, where a private funeral service was held.
Pele was then interred in a 10-story mausoleum that holds the Guinness World Record as the tallest cemetery on Earth.
A spokesman for the cemetery said Pele’s embalmed body would rest in its coffin, displayed in the middle of a 200-square-meter (2,150-square-foot) replica football stadium with artificial turf, surrounded by gilded images from his glory days.
“It’s a difficult moment,” 33-year-old fan Jonatas Versolato told AFP as the coffin was brought into the cemetery.
“Pele was an idol not just to the nation but the entire world. Saying the final goodbye is going to leave a giant hole.”
Born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, Pele is the only player in history to win three World Cups (1958, 1962 and 1970).
He scored a world record 1,281 goals during his more than two-decade career with Santos (1956-74), the New York Cosmos (1975-77) and the Brazilian national team.
He died Thursday after a battle with cancer.
Tributes have poured in from around the world, with current and former football greats hailing his genius for the “beautiful game,” including Brazil star Neymar, France’s Kylian Mbappe and Argentina’s Lionel Messi.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who attended the wake Monday, called Pele “a global icon of football” and said the sport’s governing body would ask all member countries to name a stadium in the player’s honour.
– ‘Pele was everything’ –
Life-long Santos fan Katia Cruz, 58, who lives a block from the stadium, said she had stood in line for four hours overnight to get into the Vila Belmiro, attending the wake without her husband because he was “inconsolable.” “Pele was everything. He was the King. He deserves this,” she told AFP. In the latest in an outpouring of tributes, Rio de Janeiro’s mayor said the city would rename the street outside the iconic Maracana stadium Pele Avenue.
Pele’s son Edinho said the family was grateful for the flood of such gestures. But “any homage we can pay to him is small compared to what he represents and the life story he wrote,” he said.
“I am just so grateful and proud.”
