Pelé (center) with Beckenbauer on the left and Bobby Moore on the right — © AP
German football legend Franz Beckenbauer will not attend Pele’s funeral on Tuesday. “I would love to go to Brazil, but my health does not allow such a long flight,” said der Franz in an interview with Bild am Sonntag.
Jens HeylenBron: BELGIAN
In the seventies of the last century, the now 77-year-old Beckenbauer and Pelé played together at the American New York Cosmos. They became friends. “He was like a brother to me. In recent years there has been less contact due to circumstances, but such a friendship always remains. What remains now are the memories.”
Pelé died on Thursday at the age of 82 from the effects of colon cancer in a hospital in the Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo. Preparations for the funeral on Tuesday are in full swing.