Football icon Pele passed away on December 29 at the age of 82 at a Brazilian hospital in Sao Paulo – a throwback to when he met Roger Federer.
Roger Federer and Pele are two of the most iconic names in the sporting fraternity. Back in 2012, Federer made the journey all the way to Brazil to meet Pele at his apartment. The tennis legend and the footballing icon share a tremendous amount of mutual respect and admiration, which was quite evident during their interaction ten years ago.
It was a splendid interaction and Pele gifted a special piece of World Cup memorabilia to Federer along with his Brazilian national jersey. The Swiss maestro was over-whelmed by Pele’s kind gesture and the two icons shared a warm hug towards the end of their meeting. Federer had always wished to meet Pele in person and he admitted that it was a ‘dream come true’ moment for him.
“Meeting Pele was an absolute dream come true. It was an honor to be introduced to the most important and most famous personality in world soccer”, Federer had said after the interaction. In exchange for Pele’s gift, Federer handed over a signed tennis racquet to the Brazilian superstar.
Football icon Pele passed away on December 29 at the age of 82 at the Albert Einstein hospital, Sao Paulo, in his home country of Brazil. He was suffering from persistent illness for a long time. In 2021, he had to undergo surgery to remove a tumour from his colon at the Albert Einstein hospital in Sao Paulo and had to be readmitted last month. He passed away in the same hospital last night.
The hospital confirmed that Pele died “due to the failure of multiple organs, a result of the progression of colon cancer associated with his previous clinical condition”. He is undoubtedly one of the greatest sportspersons of all-time and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has declared three days of national mourning after his demise. A procession through the streets of Santos in Sao Paulo to a private family burial has been arranged in honour of the footballing icon and it will take place next week on Tuesday.
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