Pelé, 82, suffering from colon cancer discovered in September 2021, has been hospitalized in Sao Paulo since late November. In their latest bulletin Wednesday, his doctors reported a “progression” of his cancer as well as “kidney and heart failure.”
On Sunday, one of his sons, Joshua Arantes, joined his three sisters, his brother and several of their children already at Albert Einstein Hospital. “One more has arrived,” Kely Nascimento announced on Instagram under a photo of her and her brother kissing and smiling.
No special activity was observed in front of the hospital where the legend Pelé is, the only soccer player who has won the World Cup three times (1958, 1962, 1970), AFP journalists noted.
On Christmas Eve shortly after midnight, Kely Nascimento, another of ‘King’ Pelé’s daughters, posted a photo on Instagram showing his wife, Marcia Aoki, and other family members in the bedroom. ex-football player, but without him.
“Almost everyone. Merry Christmas. Gratitude, love, togetherness, family. The essence of Christmas. We thank you all for all the love and light you send us,” Kely Nascimento wrote in the caption of this photo.
His brother Edinho had previously posted a photo on the same social network of him taking Pelé’s hand, with the caption: “Father, my strength is with you”.
Edinho, technical director of soccer club Londrina, in the southern state of Parana, had joined his sisters, Flavia and Kely Nascimento, who have been very present with Pelé in recent days at the hospital.
Edinho made the trip despite the fact that the day before he had apologized for not being able to be with his father. “I want to be here, but today I have obligations here. I’m not a doctor, I couldn’t be of much help,” he told the daily Estadao on Friday.
“One More Night Together”
Late Friday, Kely Nascimento had posted, still on Instagram, a moving picture of Pelé and her embracing him in his hospital bed, only half of his face visible, equipped with nasal cannulas for breathing assistance. “One more night together”, said the caption, “we are here always, in the fight and in the faith”.
Just before the publication of Pelé’s alarming health report on Wednesday, his two daughters announced that they would spend Christmas in hospital with the ex-striker, “for various reasons”. Pelé was admitted to hospital on 29 November for a respiratory infection following Covid contamination and for a re-evaluation of his cancer treatment, where his chemotherapy had been ineffective.