Cape Verde has become the first nation in the world to name one of its stadium after the late Brazilian legend, Pele.
It would be recalled that FIFA President Gianni Infantino had appealed to all nations to name their stadium after the late football icon.
According to Standard UK, the Prime Minister of the African country said they would name their national stadium – Estádio da Várzea – after the Brazil great, who died aged 82 on December 29.
Cape Verde, a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean west of the main African continent, shares Portuguese as a shared language with Brazil.
Brazil and Cape Verde have a history and culture that “go hand in hand, considering that they are two sister countries, linked by language and by very similar identities,” according to Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva.
“Pele was and will always be a reference in Brazil, in our Portuguese-speaking world and in the rest of the world, being an idol that connects several generations,” the Prime Minister added. ”As a tribute and recognition to this figure who makes us all great, I manifest the intention (of the Government) to name our national stadium as ‘Pele Stadium’ in an initiative to which, I believe, several countries around the world will accompany us.”
According to the official Cape Verde government website, the executive has already notified FIFA of its decision to rename the stadium.
After laying in state for a whole day at the Vila Belmiro Stadium, the home of his former team Santos, Pele was buried in Brazil on Tuesday.
