Cape Verde emerges first country to name stadium after Pele

Cape Verde’s national stadium is to be renamed after Pele, the country’s prime minister has said.

The 15,000-seater Estadio Nacional de Cabo Verde, located just outside the capital Praia, will become the Pele Stadium.

The news comes after Fifa’s president Gianna Infantino proposed – while speaking at Pele’s memorial service in Brazil – that every country should name a stadium after the footballing legend who died on 29 December, aged 82.

“As a tribute and recognition to this figure that makes us all great, I manifest the intention of naming our national stadium as “Pele Stadium”, in an initiative that, I believe, will be followed by several countries around the world,” Ulisses Correira e Silva wrote on Facebook.