The government of Guinea-Bissau announced on Friday that it has renamed a sports stadium in its second city Bafata “Pele Stadium” in honour of the late Brazilian football legend. The decision was made at a cabinet meeting after observing a minute’s silence in memory of Pele, who died on 29 December at age 82, the government said in a statement.
Bafata is located about 150 kilometres east of the capital Bissau. The regional stadium has a capacity of about 15 000 seats. This makes Guinea-Bissau the second African country to adhere to FIFA’s call.
On Wednesday, Cape Verde’s prime minister announced that the stadium in its capital city, Praia, would also be renamed the “Pele Stadium”. The two African countries made the name changes in response to a call by FIFA president Gianni Infantino for each member country of the world football association to name one of its stadia after the star player.
Pele’s final resting place was a 200-square-metre (2 150-square-feet) mausoleum in Santos’ vertical cemetery, where a huge crowd of fans paid tribute to him.
