Pelé’s Mother, Celeste Arantes, Passes Away at 101

21/06/2024 13h34 · Atualizado 21/06/2024

Celeste Arantes, the mother of Edson Arantes do 🍇 Nascimento, better known as Pelé, passed away at 101 years old, this Friday (21), in Santos, on the coast of 🍇 Sao Paulo. The queen-mother was a miner from Três Corações and had three children: Pelé, Jair (Zoca) and the youngest, 🍇 Maria Lúcia, responsible for her care.

The cassino net found out that Celeste had been hospitalized for 8 days, but the cause 🍇 of death has not been informed yet.

All of Dona Celeste’s children were fruits of her relationship with João Ramos do 🍇 Nascimento, known as Dondinho, whom she was married to until 1996, the year he passed away.

Just before Pelé passed away, 🍇 at the age of 82, he paid tribute to his mother’s 100th birthday, on November 20, 2024, the day the 🍇 World Cup in Qatar opened.

Pelé’s Post on Social Media

"From a young age, she taught me the value of love and 🍇 peace. I have more than a hundred reasons to thank her for being my mother. I share these photos with 🍇 you, with much emotion, celebrating this day. Thank you for all the days by her side, mother", Pelé wrote, at 🍇 the time, on social media.

Dona Celeste Opposed Pelé’s Football Career

Despite passing through Atlético/MG, Hepacaré, from Lorena (SP), Vasco de São 🍇 Lourenço (MG), and Bauru Atlético Clube, Pelé’s father’s career was not long due to injuries. And for that same reason, 🍇 because she did not believe that football would give him a future, Dona Celeste was resistant to seeing her son 🍇 in the world of the ball, even though she knew of his innate vocation for playing in the streets. She 🍇 even prevented Bangu, from Rio de Janeiro, from hiring him.

To convince her, it took a lot of work from Dondinho 🍇 and, even more so, from Waldemar de Brito - a famous forward in the 1930s and 1940s, responsible for taking 🍇 him to Santos in 1956.

The family only left Bauru, a city in the Interior of São Paulo, to live in 🍇 Santos eight years later, in 1964.

On his social networks, Pelé posted a dedication and thanked “Dona Celeste” for the teachings 🍇 throughout her life.

Dona Celeste’s Wish for Pelé

Dona Celeste’s wish was always for Pelé, or better Dico, to be a good 🍇 son and a good person, with a basic and fundamental advice: to have a lot of faith. A feeling that 🍇 the King of Football carried in his 82 years and will take with him forever in this farewell to eternity.

"He 🍇 used to say that it wasn’t easy to be away, he suffered from homesickness for the family. But he should 🍇 continue to achieve his goal of winning. He didn’t want to return. My heart was tight, but I had to 🍇 support him", Dona Celeste said in an interview for A Tribuna in 2012, obtained through her granddaughter Danielle.