With bated breath, almost resigned to fate, all Brazil but the rest of the football world is watching the latest acts of his health drama Peleas the “king of football” fights his latest battle with cancer at the Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo.

The body of what many consider to be the best footballer in history no longer appears to be responding to the treatment he is being given by the hospital doctors for an illness that has already afflicted his kidneys and heart.

Together, the country of 217 million inhabitants, which he has repeatedly managed to unite like no other of his brainchildren, prays for a miracle that will change course by the end of the 82-year-old football legend, as did the veteran Romario, who in a message to Pelé emphasized that all of Brazil with him. In the clinic, where he is surrounded by almost his entire extended family, the images of hugs and vigils are, to put it mildly, touching.

And in his Santos football family, preparations have already begun for a magnificent “farewell” to the national pilgrimage to the stadium.