Celeste Arantes

Celeste Arantes (20 November 1922 – 21 June 2024), better known as Dona Celeste, was the wife of the footballer Dondinho, and mother of another footballer Pelé.

Biography

Born in Três Corações, Minas Gerais, Celeste married Dondinho while he was playing for , and with him she had three children: Edson (Pelé), Jair (Zoca) and Maria Lúcia. Celeste was always against the idea of her children following a career as footballers, as she understood how difficult it was to move from place to place all the time. She outlived Pelé by nearly two years, dying at the age of 101. She had been in a vegetative state since 2019.

She is also embodied as a character in Mauricio de Sousa's comic strips Pelezinho.