(Reuters) – The famous Maracana stadium in Brazil is to be renamed, after Rio de Janeiro state legislature voted Tuesday to change its official title to Edson Arantes do Nascimento stadium – Rei Pele stadium.
Pele, 80, with the full name Edson Arantes do Nascimento, played at the stadium several times for Brazil and scored his 1,000th goal there in 1969 – for Santos against local club Vasco da Gama .
“It is a well-deserved honor for a man who is known throughout the world for his legacy in Brazilian football and for the corresponding services rendered to our country,” said the deputy chief who is responsible for the project. ‘Rei’ means ‘king’ in Portugal.
The stadium, the host of the last match of the 1950 and 2014 World Cup tournaments, as well as the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympics, was named long after Mario Filho, a journalist who lobbied for his rise in the 1940s.
The legislature said the football stadium would be renamed but that the largest sports building around the earth could retain its current name.
Most Brazilians simply call it the Maracana, after the community in which it is located.
Rio’s state governor must give permission for a name change, which football fans have not met with a global recommendation.
Some said Mario Filho was more deserving of the honor, while others argued that any new honor should be from Rio – unlike Pele, who was born in the state of Minas Gerais and lived a long time. -part of his life in the state of Sao Paulo.
Reporting by Andrew Downie in London, Edited by Rosalba O’Brien