‘The world will never forget him’ — Buhari mourns Pele

President Muhammadu Buhari has mourned Pele, the Brazilian football legend, who died at the age of 82.

Pele, fondly nicknamed the “king of football”, passed away on Thursday after battling colon cancer.

The football legend’s demise came a few weeks after the former Santos forward had been rushed to the hospital and was transferred into a palliative care ward when he stopped responding to chemotherapy.

Family members had gathered at the Albert Einstein Israelita Hospital in Sao Paulo — where he was receiving treatment — shortly before Christmas.

Since then, tributes have been pouring in for the late Pele.

In his tribute, Buhari described the three-time World Cup winner as a figure of “enormous generosity of spirit and humility in spite of his greatness as a footballer and sportsman”.

He said Pele was a personality that transcended and united races, nations, and religions.

Buhari added that the world will never forget the late Brazilian.

“May he rest in peace. He led a good life and made a huge contribution to the development of global football in particular and world sport in general,” he said.

“He had an enormous generosity of spirit and humility in spite of his greatness as a footballer and sportsman.

“He also built bridges across nations, races and even religions. He was a UN Ambassador of goodwill. Pele is gone but the world will never forget him.”

On his part, Sunday Dare, minister of sports and youth development, praised Pele as “a citizen of the world” that impacted humanity.

“Pele’s exploits cannot be forgotten and he is unarguably the greatest footballer of all time. His successes were not just on the football pitch, they went beyond the pitch into the minds of people because he impacted humanity,” the minister said.

“It took a long time for many people to know he was a Brazilian. He was a citizen of the world who transcended boundaries and broke barriers. It is therefore not a surprise to see this outpouring of emotions at the news of his passing in spite of the fact that he has had a long-drawn battle with illness.”