By Victor Enengedi
Legendary Brazilian football star, Edison Arantes do Nascimento popularly known as Pele, is to be honoured with a life-size bronze statue.
The statue of the now 72-year old former Brazilian striker which is to be unveiled in June for the reopening of Rio’s refurbished Maracana Stadium is based on photographs of a goal Pele scored in Brazil’s 4-1 victory against Czechoslovakia during the 1970 World Cup in Mexico.
Designed by the renowned Brazilian sculptor, Victor Henrique Woitschach, the statue which weighs 300-kilogram (660 pound) will be erected inside the renovated 79,000-seat Maracana arena.
According to Woitschach who also designed the statue of the late Michael Jackson which stands in a favela of Rio’s Botafogo district inaugurated in June 2010, the modelling took two days and the process of making the statue 45 days.
The statue will be inaugurated on June 2 during a Brazil-England friendly game a few days before the opening of the Confederations Cup, a dress rehearsal for the 2014 World Cup.
