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(Reuters) – Brazil’s world well-known Maracana stadium is to get a brand new identify, after the Rio de Janeiro state legislature voted on Tuesday to vary its official title to the Edson Arantes do Nascimento – Rei Pele stadium.
The 80-year-old Pele, whose full identify is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, performed on the stadium many instances for Brazil and scored his 1,000th aim there in 1969 – for Santos towards native membership Vasco da Gama.
“It’s a worthy homage to a person who’s acknowledged the world over for his legacy in Brazilian soccer and for the corresponding providers rendered to our nation,” the deputy chargeable for the mission mentioned. ‘Rei’ means ‘king’ in Portuguese.
The stadium, host of the ultimate match within the 1950 and 2014 World Cup tournaments, in addition to the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympics, has lengthy been named after Mario Filho, a journalist who lobbied for its development within the Nineteen Forties.
The legislature mentioned the soccer stadium will probably be renamed however the bigger sports activities advanced across the floor can retain its present identify.
Most Brazilians name it merely the Maracana, after the neighborhood by which it’s situated.
The Rio state governor should give the go-ahead to the identify change, which was not met with common acclaim by soccer followers.
Some mentioned that Mario Filho was extra worthy of the respect, whereas others argued that any new honoree ought to be from Rio – not like Pele, who was born in Minas Gerais state and lived most of his life within the state of Sao Paulo.
(Reporting by Andrew Downie in London, Enhancing by Rosalba O’Brien)
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