Final farewell for Pele, Brazil's football 'King'

SANTOS - Brazilians bid a final farewell this week to football giant Pele, starting on Monday with a 24-hour public wake at the stadium of his long-time team, Santos.

The oceanside home of the team nicknamed "Peixe" -- "fish" in Portuguese -- is expecting a huge influx of fans looking to honour the "King" of football, who died aged 82 on Thursday after a long battle with cancer.

The coffin bearing the remains of the only player to have won three World Cups will be displayed in the centre of the field.

In the stands, three giant flags could be seen Sunday, one with an image of Pele displaying the famous number 10 on his jersey.

Another bore the message "Long live the king"; the third said simply, "Pele 82 years."

Entry to the stadium will be allowed until 10am Tuesday, officials said.

After that, a procession will be held through the streets of Santos, a port city about 75 kilometres from the state capital Sao Paulo.

The parade will pass the house of Pele's mother, 100-year-old Celeste Arantes, who is unaware that her world-famous son has died.

"She doesn't know," Pele's sister Maria Lucia do Nascimento told ESPN on Friday. "She is not conscious."

The procession will end at a cemetery in Santos, where Pele will be interred in a special mausoleum.

Wreaths of flowers left by his fans have brought a splash of colour to Vila Belmiro, which houses a bust and a statue of the football great.

At the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro, a giant poster with Pele's image bears the word "eternal."

And at the inauguration on Sunday of Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the ceremony began with a minute's silence in Pele's memory.

Military police in Sao Paulo state, where digital street screens also pay tribute to the prolific striker, said there would be a "robust" deployment for the posthumous tributes.

Security will be strengthened at Congonhas airport in Sao Paulo ahead of the expected arrival of throngs of athletes, politicians, dignitaries and fans for the wake.

Pele had been hospitalised at the Albert Einstein Hospital for a month until his death on December 29.

"We were with him" on December 21, his sister recounted. "It was very quiet, we talked a little, but I already sensed that he was feeling it, he already knew he was leaving."

Born on 23 October 1940, Pele grew up selling peanuts on the street to help his impoverished family.