Will FIFA keep Pele’s feet in museum after family’s permission?

Claim: FIFA will keep Pele’s feet in the museum upon his family’s permission.

Verdict: FALSE. No public information by either FIFA, Pele’s family or media outlets confirms the statement’s accuracy.

Full Text

Following the death of soccer icon and Brazilian Legend Edson Arantes do Nascimento, popularly known as Pele, a Twitter handle, kongtainment (@kongtainment), has tweeted that the feet of the revered soccer icon will be placed in a museum by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) upon family’s permission. The handle made the post referencing TNT Sports Brazil as the source of the announcement.

The post was made less than 24 hours after Pele was announced to have passed away due to multiple organ failure — a reality of advanced-stage colon cancer.

The tweet was viewed by over 3,000 devices on the microblogging social media platform Twitter, quoted twice, retweeted thrice, and liked 25 times.

Before his death, Pele had, in recent years, been on medication for cancer and visited the hospital weeks before his death for treatment. The famous football icon had won three World Cup tournaments (1958, 1962, and 1970) with his home country, Brazil, and ten league titles with Santos, his club team, and the 1977 North American Soccer League championship with New York Cosmos.

The New York Times has been quoted to have associated Pele with profound love and admiration from both poor and rich folks alike before his demise. He passed away at Israelita Albert Einstein in Sao Paulo at age 82.

Due to the sensitivity of the matter and the number of views the tweet has garnered, DUBAWA decided to verify the claim.

Verification

A brief search on FIFA’s official website only revealed a host of tributes poured in honour of the demised soccer icon and Brazilian legend, with no public message in favour of the accuracy of the tweet.

Messages sent to FIFA and TNT Sports Brazil through emails and social media handles were left without correspondence from either organisation.

Again, after several searches on Google, there was no official statement given by the family of the soccer legend in respect of the claim. Attempts to reach his daughter, Kelly Nascimento and manager, Joe Fraga, were abortive.

We also found no news outlet, including TNT Sports Brazil, with a report publicly confirming that Pele’s feet would be delivered to a museum by FIFA as an artefact.