Cape Verde National Stadium is the first stadium in the world to be renamed after footballer Pele. Cape Verde Prime Minister Ulisses Correira e Silva has said the 15,000-seat Estadio Nacional de Cabo Verde, located outside the capital, Praia, will be the Pele Stadium.
Cape Verde is an island nation in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with a total area of about 4,033 square kilometers in Africa. “Cape Verde and Brazil share a common history and culture, considering that they are two fraternal countries with very similar languages and identities.
According to a BBC report, the name change was announced after FIFA President Gianna Infantino proposed at a memorial service for Pele in Brazil. He said every country should name a stadium after the football hero who died on December 29 at the age of 82.
Prime Minister Ulisses Correira e Silva wrote on his official Facebook page: “In honor and recognition, I express my intention to name our national stadium ‘Pele Stadium’ in an initiative that I believe will follow. “By many countries around the world.”
“Pele has always been a reference in Brazil, in our Portuguese-speaking country and in the whole world, and a star who has been connected for generations,” he said.
Pele, a Brazilian, is the greatest football hero in the world, winning three World Cups three times and playing 1,363 games, scoring 1,281 goals in 21 appearances. He was a professional player, scoring 77 goals in 92 appearances for his country, and was named FIFA’s Player of the Century in 2000. Pele, a footballer born into a poor family, has become one of the greatest and most famous athletes in modern history.
However, South African Football Association president Danny Jordaan has since raised concerns that this could lead to potential problems with stadium naming rights.
Source: bbc.com
