# Illness, death and legacy

> Pelé died of colon cancer in December 2022 at 82; more than 230,000 people filed past his coffin in Santos.

Source page: https://pele.wiki/footballer/chapters/illness-death-and-legacy
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pel%C3%A9

- Began: 4 September 2021
- Ended: 3 January 2023

In September 2021, routine tests found a tumour in Pelé's colon. On 4 September he had surgery at the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital in São Paulo, and he then began chemotherapy. He announced the operation himself on social media.

In early 2022 doctors found that the cancer had spread to his intestine, lungs and liver. He was admitted to the same hospital on 29 November with a respiratory infection after catching COVID-19. In early December it was reported that the cancer was no longer responding to chemotherapy and that he was receiving palliative care. Later that month the hospital said he needed more care for kidney and heart problems, and he could not go home for Christmas as his family had hoped.

Pelé died on 29 December 2022, aged 82. The cause was multiple organ failure as a complication of colon cancer. His mother, Celeste, then 100, survived him.

Brazil declared three days of national mourning. Flags were lowered at FIFA's headquarters in Zürich, and landmarks from Christ the Redeemer to Wembley Stadium were lit in his honour. On 2 January 2023 his coffin, draped in the flags of Brazil and Santos, was placed on the pitch at Vila Belmiro. More than 230,000 people filed past over two days, among them President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. On 3 January a procession carried him through the streets of Santos to the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica, where he was buried.

His legacy reaches well beyond his statistics. The Guardian's Barney Ronay called him the first global sports superstar, and his emergence in 1958 made him one of the first Black global sporting stars. He linked football with the phrase "the beautiful game". In 2023 the Michaelis Portuguese dictionary added *pelé* as an adjective meaning exceptional or unique, after a campaign signed by more than 125,000 people, and Rwanda renamed its national stadium in Kigali in his honour. His goal record for Brazil stood until Neymar passed it in September 2023.

## Related

- What the chapter is about: [Santos FC](https://pele.wiki/footballer/teams/santos), [Pelé](https://pele.wiki/footballer/people/pele), [Celeste Arantes](https://pele.wiki/footballer/people/celeste-arantes), [Marcia Aoki](https://pele.wiki/footballer/people/marcia-aoki), [Edinho](https://pele.wiki/footballer/people/edinho), [The Best FIFA Special Award, 2022 (posthumous)](https://pele.wiki/footballer/honours/fifa-best-special-award-2022), ["Pelé" added to the Michaelis dictionary, 2023](https://pele.wiki/footballer/honours/michaelis-dictionary-2023), [Vila Belmiro (Estádio Urbano Caldeira)](https://pele.wiki/footballer/locations/vila-belmiro), [Santos](https://pele.wiki/footballer/locations/santos-city), [São Paulo](https://pele.wiki/footballer/locations/sao-paulo)
- The questions it answers: [When and how did Pelé die?](https://pele.wiki/footballer/questions/when-and-how-did-pele-die)