The story of the Argentine who made the coffin in which Pelé was buried: “We feel proud”

Pele’s remains already rest in the Ecumenical Necropolis Memorial, the highest cemetery in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records. With 32 floors and 25,000 niches, the building was built by an Argentinian, the same one who offered O Rei 20 years ago the coffin built in Córdoba with which the footballer was buried.

This was told by Mariano Fiori, owner of the company of the same name clarion that Pelé’s drawer was designed in Argentina, precisely in the small town of Oliva (Córdoba) which has 12,000 inhabitants. But the story that unites the biggest idol of Brazilian football with the material of our country began more than two decades ago.

The coffin factory has 112 years old and today it is run by the fifth generation of the same family. Several years ago, the factory began importing abroad and one of the main trading partners was José Altstut, a Santa Fe-born Argentine and close friend of Pelé who conceived the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica cemetery, located in the city of Santos.

Company officials have traveled to Brazil on several occasions to establish business with Altstut. “We made our first trips, to get to know each other better, with our vehicles, with our trucks, but it was a long journey. Then we started shipping the coffins in containers,” Fiori explained.

“We have to send three containers a year to Memorial. Each container, with 130 high-end coffins, which was what they bought from us in the Brazilian cemetery,” he added.

The truth is that Altstut has come to form a friendly relationship with O Rei. According to Fiori’s account, they had lunch every Thursday. Such was the union that the Brazilian I’m ordering you to reserve the entire ninth floor of the cemetery. This number and this floor are not accidental: the former footballer chose it in honor of his father, who wore the shirt with the number 9 and This floor has the particularity of having a view of the Santos field.

In those meetings, Edson Arantes do Nascimento also marked the coffin in which he would like to be buried. It was 2003 when he chose a black one with silver details.. Considered “top of the range” and which its manufacturers call the “two-pronged presidential chest”, it is one of the most exclusive models.

“We already knew twenty years ago that Pelé had opted for one of our illustrators. Although the truth has been so long that we could only confirm it when we finally saw it at the Santos stadium. There I communicated with the people of the cemetery and they assured me that it was our invention,” says Fiori.

“For us it is a great pride. We are honored that you have chosen us. If such an important person has laid eyes on our product, it means that we are doing something good”, he still expresses, moved. Fiori says that he too other personalities were buried with their drawers. Sandro, Juan Alberto Badía and the former Cordovan governor José Manuel de la Sota, among others.

Repeated crises in Argentina have overshadowed the market and marketing of coffins. Now the company has stopped exporting. In their heyday they managed to ship between 5 and 6 containers of 130 units per month to Spain and the United States. Today, they ship about 185 a day in total. Uruguay is the only country outside the borders where they continue to send their products.

“My grandfather experienced the crisis of 1930, my father that of 2001, we are here now. We never give up and we will continue whatever happens. The expectation is always good, we hope to start again soon and that everything will improve” , hill. Mariano, perhaps better than anyone else, knows that as long as there is life there is hope.

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