Santos FC vacant No.10 jersey following relegation in Pele's tribute

Pele passed away last year from Colon cancer

As long as Santos FC are in the nation’s second division, no player for the team will don the number 10 jersey, the newly appointed club president has declared.

The choice was taken, according to Marcelo Teixeira, the president of Santos elected on Saturday, as a memorial to the team’s greatest player, Pele, who passed away in 2022 from colon cancer.

This year’s Brazilian league saw a celebration of Pelé in every game at the 10-minute mark, a nod to the number on his Santos and Brazil team shirt.

Teixeira, who served as Santos’ president twice before, stated.

Until Santos is back in Serie A, which is its standard, we will not play with the number 10 shirt,’ ‘This year’s Brazilian league was named after King Pelé. We will continue in this mission. We will be back in the top division, but until then, we won’t wear our most glorious shirt.’

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In Santos on January 1, businessman Teixeira defeated four opponents and secured 53% of the vote to retake the presidency. He once recommended that the team permanently retire Pelé’s “10,” but the three-time World Cup winner himself stated he wasn’t in favour of it.

‘This should have been a party of democracy, but this moment is not adequate for celebrations,’ Teixeira told Santos club members after the vote. ‘We need to be united from now on so we can have the opportunity to put Santos back at its level.’

The president of Santos, Andrés Rueda, released an apologetic video on social media on Friday. He did not cast a ballot because he was afraid of his fans’ wrath.

After suffering its first relegation on Wednesday due to a 2-1 home loss to Fortaleza, Santos has had a difficult week. That evening, supporters set fire to cars and buses, stormed into Vila Belmiro Stadium the following day, and earlier on Saturday, started fights inside the team during the ongoing presidential voting.

As Brazilian football became more competitive and costly, Santos found itself in bankruptcy, a political split, a hunt for new heroes, and a bleak future with fewer resources in the second tier.

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