The West African state of Guinea-Bissau has renamed a sports stadium in its second city Bafata “Pele Stadium” in honour of the late Brazilian football legend.
The Government announced this on Friday when the decision was arrived at after the meeting of the Council of Ministers in the country.
The proposal of FIFA president Gianni Infantino about Brazil’s football great Late Edison Arantes Do Nascimento aka Pele has continued to gain recognition.
Infantino during the burial of Pele said each of the 211 member associations should name at least one stadium in their respective country after Pele as a mark of honour.
Cape Verde was the first country to take the step as they name the 15,000-capacity stadium in their capital after the former Santos player.
Guinea Bissau on Friday morning followed suit as the country’s president Umaro Sissoco Embalo named Estadio Rocha stadium after Pele.
Recall that Cape Verde became the first country to name a stadium after Pele following FIFA President, Gianni Infantino’s call for every nation to do so.
The Prime Minister of the African country said they would name their national stadium- Estadio da Varzea- after the Brazil great, who died aged 82 on December 29.
Cape Verde, which constituted a group of islands to the West of the main African continent in the Atlantic Ocean, shares Portuguese as a common language with Brazil.
Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva disclosed that Brazil and Cape Verde had a history and a culture that “go hand in hand, considering that they are two sisters countries, linked by language and by very similar identities “.
“Pele will always be a reference in Brazil as well as the rest of the world for generations” he added.
The official Cape Verde government website said that the executive had already notified FIFA of its intention to change the name of the stadium.
