Pelé’s health has worsened, hospital says

By Angela Reyes and Jill Martin, CNN

Pelé’s health has worsened and the Brazilian soccer great now requires greater care due to the progression of his cancer, according to a statement by the Albert Einstein Jewish Hospital in São Paulo on Wednesday.

Pelé was admitted to the hospital on November 29 for a respiratory infection and “re-evaluation of the chemotherapy treatment over the colon cancer identified in September 2021,” the hospital said at the time.

Now Pelé “presents progression of the oncological disease and requires greater care related to renal (kidney) and cardiac dysfunctions,” the hospital said Wednesday.

The need for greater care means Pelé will spend Christmas at the Albert Einstein Jewish Hospital in São Paulo, his daughter Kely Nascimento said in an Instagram post on Wednesday.

“Our Christmas at home has been suspended,” Nascimento wrote. “We decided with the doctors that, for various reasons, it would be better for us to stay here, with all the care that this new family … Einstein gives us!!” added Nascimento.

After Pelé was hospitalized in November, Nascimento explained that the former soccer player had had Covid-19, despite being vaccinated “with all doses,” and because the chemotherapy had made him more fragile, he contracted a lung infection.

Pelé is widely considered to be one of the greatest soccer players in history.

He played in four World Cups, winning three — in 1958, 1962, 1970 — as well as scoring 12 goals in 14 games. He scored 1,281 goals in his professional career in 1,363 games.

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