Brazilian legend Pele has been buried after a procession of his coffin in Santos.

Yesterday, his coffin, draped in the Brazilian flag, was carried through the streets of the city of Santos on a fire engine.

It continued to the Memorial Necropole Ecumenica cemetery, where a private funeral was held for family members on the ninth floor of a vertical cemetery overlooking Santos’ stadium.It is a “vertical cemetery”, recognised by Guinness World Records as the tallest memorial site…

 in the world, and its construction was completed in 1984.

Pele reportedly  purchased a tomb on the ninth floor, in tribute to his late father and fellow footballer Dondinho, who wore a number nine shirt.

The cemetery is less than a kilometre from the Vila Belmiro Stadium, where Pele arrived as a 15-year-old in 1956 at the start of his journey to being arguably the greatest footballer of all time.

He  was  the only player to have won three World Cups and was named FIFA’s Player of the Century in 2000.

Thousands of fans had gathered on the streets as the hearse carrying his coffin arrived at the Urbano Caldeira stadium, home of Pele’s former club Santos, in Sao Paulo on Monday.

Yesterday , his coffin, draped in the Brazilian flag, was carried through the streets of the city of Santos on a fire engine, and, poignantly, the funeral procession passed the house where his 100-year-old mother, Celeste Arantes, still lives.

Amongst the hundreds of thousands of mourners – the majority wearing No.10 Santos and Brazil shirts – was Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. “Pele is incomparable, as a soccer player and as a human being,” Lula said, per Reuters.

The former Santos forward was hospitalised on November 29 with complications related to colon cancer, and the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein said on December 28 that his cancer had advanced and that he required care for renal and cardiac dysfunctions.

Fears grew for Pele’s health when news broke that his son Edinho had travelled from Londrina, which is 540km east of Sao Paulo, to join two of Pele’s daughters, Kely Nascimento and Flavia Arantes do Nascimento, by his bedside.

Pele’s death was confirmed by agent Joe Fraga on the evening of Thursday 29 December and attributed to multiple organ failure as a result of his cancer. The hospital announced that he had died at 3.27pm local time.