Pele funeral: Brazil hero’s coffin transported on fire truck as fans confused at tradition | Football | Sport

Pele’s Brazil team-mate Garrincha, who died at the age of 50 back in 1983, was also given a similar honour when he was taken through the streets of his birthplace, Rio de Janeiro.

Crowds of admirers lined the road, threw flowers and waved a last farewell as Garrincha’s coffin, draped in the flag of his old club Botafogo, was carried on top of a fire brigade truck from Maracana Stadium for burial near his birthplace 40 miles outside Rio.

And it wasn’t just footballers. Brazil fell silent when three-time world champion Ayrton Senna died in an accident at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994.

For his funeral, Senna’s coffin was also carried on a fire engine as he was transported through Sao Paulo as three million people turned out, making it one of the biggest funerals in history.