COLOMBIAN STADIUM FIRST IN LATIN AMERICA RENAMED AFTER PELE

Colombia is the first Latin American country to comply with FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s request that a stadium be named after Pele.

Infantino said on Monday that FIFA would ask all countries to name a stadium after the Brazilian icon, widely regarded as the greatest footballer of all time, who died last week after a long battle with illness.

Late Wednesday, Juan Guillermo Zuluaga, governor of Colombia’s southern Meta department, announced on Twitter that a stadium in Villavicencio would be named “BELLO HORIZONTE ‘REY PELE.”

“Future generations must understand who this world football icon was,” Zuluaga said.

The 15,000-seat stadium, which opened in 1958, was previously known as Bello Horizonte, which translates to “beautiful skyline” in Spanish.

It is the home of Colombian second division club Llaneros.

Pele died on December 29, at the age of 82, after a long battle with colon cancer.

He was laid to rest on Tuesday in Santos, where he spent the majority of his football career and made his name.

While attending Pele’s funeral, Infantino stated that he would request that all FIFA member federations rename a stadium after the three-time World Cup winner.

Colombia was beaten to the stadium renaming by Cape Verde, whose prime minister, Jose Ulisses Correia e Silva, announced the renaming of the national stadium in Praia earlier on Wednesday.

Since 1979, the northeastern Brazilian city of Maceio has had a stadium called “Rei Pele” (King Pele), though it is more commonly known as the Trapichao.