Cape Verde renamed its national stadium in honor of Pele
Cape Verde’s national stadium will be renamed after Pele, the country’s prime minister has announced.
The 15,000-seat Estadio Nacional de Cabo Verde, located outside the capital Praia, will become the Pele Stadium.
The news came after FIFA president Gianna Infantino suggested – while speaking at Pele’s memorial service in Brazil – that every country should name a stadium after the football legend who died on December 29, aged 82.
“As a tribute and recognition to this figure who made us all great, I intend to name our national stadium as “Pele Stadium”, an initiative that, I am sure, will be followed by several countries around the world,” Ulisses. Correira e Silva wrote on Facebook.
“With the physical loss of Edson Arantes de Nascimento, King Pele, who soon became a planetary figure, a mass icon shows that sport has the power to unite the world, it is now our desire to pay tribute to him,” he added. Mr. Silva in a statement that emphasized the importance of Pele for Portuguese-speaking countries like Cape Verde.
“Cape Verde and Brazil have a common history and culture, because they are two sister countries, connected by the same language and identity.
“Pele is and will always be a reference in Brazil, in Portuguese-speaking countries and throughout the world, an idol that connects several generations.”
Pele is credited with scoring a world record 1,281 goals in 1,363 appearances over a 21-year career, including 77 goals in 92 matches for his country, and was named FIFA’s Player of the Century in 2000.
At Monday’s memorial for Pele in Santos, the city where he played club football, Infantino said FIFA would ask “every country in the world to name one of its football stadiums after Pele”.
However, the president of the South African Football Association, Danny Jordaan, has begun to worry that this could lead to potential problems with the stadium’s naming rights.
Source: BBC
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