Infantino takes a selfie in front of Pelè’s tomb: controversy for the Fifa president

The wave of indignation raised on social media can only be shared: the image of Gianni Infantino, president of Fifa, taking selfies next to Pelé’s remains leaves one sincerely amazed and admits no justification. Imagine that, fake and lame, whispered unofficially among the leaders of world football, of a naive president even without a cell phone but invited to click by some people including Lima, Pelé’s ex-boyfriend, and kind enough to keep him smartphones.

He must have also been kind and helpful, Infantino, he was certainly disrespectful, rash and inappropriate. It wasn’t a place for selfies or for a smile. To be picky, not even from interviews released a few meters from the coffin, with a background of flowers and tears. The truth is that selfies are by now an obsession and an excess, a deviated hymn to narcissism and appearing: I’m here and that counts, it doesn’t matter if you breathe joy or pain around you, and recovering, recovering, has become a sick rite, which even led to tragedies being filmed rather than intervening. Extreme cases, of course, but it becomes urgent to teach etiquette, good manners, the bon ton of the click. And Infantino, accomplice or naive as he is, has missed an opportunity. At funerals he prays, remembers, weeps, reflects, consoles himself: he doesn’t pose. And if they ask to do so, you can say no politely or even with a bad face: it would still be less serious than a smile in front of a coffin.