The final curtain call of Pelé’s otherworldly career did not come at a World Cup or Copa America or even back home in his native Brazil. But the scene — in East Rutherford, New Jersey, of all places — was still grand enough to be worthy of perhaps the most famous athlete of the 20th century.
Pelé – who died on Thursday aged 82 – was a global icon long before he came to the United States in the mid-1970s to end his playing days. He had already led Brazil to three World Cup titles. He was already regarded as the greatest football player who ever lived. And even in a country and at a time when soccer barely registered in the American consciousness (and where it did, it did so with constant disdain and disrespect), Pelé was a bona fide star. The 80,000 people who entered Giants Stadium on October 1, 1977 for his send-off game — including the likes of Muhammad Ali and Mick Jagger — speak of that.
Only the true greats shine bright enough to change history alone. And the fact is, the progress the planet’s most popular sport has made into US mainstream culture over the past half-century can be directly traced to Pelé’s 28-month stay with the New York Cosmos. Pelé basically put modern American football on the map.
Pelé leaves the field following a game at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, circa 1975-77.
If Pelé, aged 34, had not made the decision to come out of retirement to play in the old North American Football League, a signing that led to huge crowds and the arrival of other stars such as Carlos Alberto, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff, he n probably the potential for football in a state would have gone unnoticed.
FIFA probably would not have given the US hosting rights for what turned out to be the highly successful 1994 World Cup, the best attended tournament of all time. Major League Soccer, created and launched as a condition for landing the World Cup, would not even have started. Now a fixture on the North American sports landscape, MLS has grown to 29 teams and will enter its 28th season in February.
With no MLS, there is no way the next World Cup would go to this continent in 2026 as a 48-team event held in cities across Canada, Mexico and the United States. or won by the home team in a crowded Rose Bowl. The foreign players who followed Pelé to the NASL, who put down roots in their new communities and became youth coaches here after the league folded in 1984, would not have contributed to the development of American youth who formed the backbone of the national teams United States. who ended a four-decade men’s World Cup in 1990 or won the first Women’s World Cup a year later.
Pelé’s unlikely move to New York was the snowball that led to everything that has happened since. Back then, it was unusual for players to leave their home countries. In a way, Pelé also started the super-club trend, even though he never played in Europe; apart from Santos in his hometown of São Paulo, the Cosmos were the only club team represented by Pelé. Today, it is completely normal for the likes of Real Madrid, Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain to not only covet or court the sport’s biggest names, but inevitably seduce them as well.
Pelé led the Cosmos to the NASL title just months before his swan song, but his impact off the field was far greater. Pelé was football’s first global icon and also the world’s star Black athlete, paving the way for Ali, Michael Jordan and others to eventually follow.
“I remember growing up reading books about Pelé,” Ali Curtis, a former Hermann trophy winner at Duke University who played in MLS before becoming the first black general manager in league history, told FOX Sports earlier this year. “One of the reasons I started playing was because the guy who was considered the best player ever was Black.”
Ever-smiling and larger than life despite standing just 5-foot-8, Pelé was a charismatic ambassador for his game wherever he went. Even if American sports fans didn’t respect football, they did respect him and his GOAT status. Pelé was as approachable as any living legend could be but also as big a draw as he was in New York, where he was a fixture on the social scene. His love affair with his adopted city did not end when he hung up his boots; Pelé maintained a residence in Manhattan all the way until his death.
It seems somehow meaningful that Pelé’s death comes just 11 days after Lionel Messi won his first World Cup for Argentina – who lost their own great, Diego Maradona, two years ago last month . Messi, after all, is the man many believe has surpassed the Brazilian as the greatest ever. That title, however, remains disputed. Pelé is still the only player to win three World Cups, still the youngest scorer in the competition’s history, still the youngest to win a hat-trick, and still the youngest to find the net in a final.
Pelé’s immense contributions to soccer in the United States are unquestionable. Pelé’s love for the country and his belief in what football could become here was essential to the evolution of the game across North America.
Doug McIntyre is a football writer for FOX Sports. Before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he was a staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports and has covered the US men’s and women’s national teams at several FIFA World Cups. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.
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