Pele's mother dies at 101

Celeste Arantes, the mother of "King" Pele, has died at the age of 101, a year and a half after the death of her son, who won the World Cup three times with the Brazilian national football team, according to what several members of her family announced on Friday.

Edinho, Pele's eldest son, wrote on Instagram: "Rest in peace, grandma," in a message accompanied by a picture of him hugging her.

One of the deceased's granddaughters, Kelly Nascimento, also posted on the same social network a picture of the mother of the star who many consider the greatest football player of all time.

The deceased's family did not provide details about the cause of death, nor did they mention when she died. According to Brazilian media, she was hospitalized for eight days and died on Friday.

Dona Celeste, as she is called in Brazil, was born in 1923 in Três Corações, a town in the state of Minas Gerais (southeast) where at the age of 17 she gave birth to Edson Arantes do Nascimento, the only footballer in history to lift three World Cups.

She married João Ramos do Nascimento, known as "Dondinho", and had two more children: Jair ("Zuca") who died in 2020 from cancer, the same disease that defeated Pelé on December 29, 2022, and then Maria Lucia.

The latter revealed shortly after the death of the "king" of football that her mother, who was 100 years old at the time, had not known about the death of her famous son.

She told ESPN at the time: "She is in her own little world."

The funeral procession carrying Pele's coffin passed her home in Santos, a coastal city near Sao Paulo where she spent her last years and where her son starred for much of his professional career.