You people have no idea. You watch MLS today and you see David Beckham and the LA Galaxy playing against the New York Red Bulls. You watch the Euro 2012 tournament, you watch the World Cup, you watch the FA Cup, and you think these games are the highest pinnacle of professional soccer.
And, sadly, you may have never heard of the New York Cosmos.
And during their time in the North American Soccer League, the Cosmos won five NASL championships, they packed Giants Stadium to capacity, and they were the first true soccer superstar team. Their roster read like a United Nations of soccer greatness – Franz Beckenbauer and Shep Messing; Carlos Alberto and Gordon Bradley…
But the player that brought the Cosmos the most attention came in 1975, when the team signed Brazilian soccer star Edson Arantes do Nascimento to a three-year contract.
You might know the guy by his nickname. Ever here of Pelé?
Pelé was a legend, the quintessential soccer player. His talent and his love for the sport caused support for the Cosmos to explode. At one point, the Cosmos’ home stadium – Giants Stadium in the Meadowlands – averaged 77,000 fans per game. And in Pelé’s final season with the Cosmos, they won the 1977 Soccer Bowl, the NASL championship game.
The next major superstar acquired by the Cosmos was Italian striker Giorgio Chinaglia. Chinaglia would later break every scoring record in the NASL, including this stretch where he scored 50 goals in the entire 1980 season. In fact, Chinaglia is the only professional soccer player to score more goals than career games played.
Unfortunately for the Cosmos, just as the team rose in popularity, it just as quickly declined. The NASL teams were losing money left and right; the Cosmos, owned by Warner Communications, were the only team able to sign international superstars, and nobody could match the Cosmos dollar for dollar, despite many teams trying. By 1984, the NASL was done. The Cosmos tried playing as an independent team, they tried joining an indoor soccer league, but it was to no avail.
There are many soccer fans – myself included – who hoped that when top-level soccer returned to this country, that the Cosmos would return as well. Unfortunately, the New York-based soccer team at the time was the New York-New Jersey MetroStars (later rebranded as the New York Red Bulls), and the Cosmos were left in the dust.
The Cosmos name still exists in soccer today; every year, the Cosmos Copa soccer tournament is held in New York City. There’s also an online presence for the team, complete with history and heritage.
Still, the soccer fan in me keeps hoping that the Cosmos will return one day – maybe as an MLS expansion team, maybe as part of a new soccer circuit. And maybe, just maybe, they’ll sign some internationally known superstar to jump-start the team’s fanbase, and maybe, just maybe, the Cosmos will return once again to the top of North American soccer.
And the first thing they should do, once they return, is retire the numbers 10 (for Pelé) and 9 (for the late Giorgio Chinaglia). Always pay tribute to those who paved the way.
Chuck The Writer 
I’ll assume you have seen “Once in a Lifetime” about the Cosmos:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489247/
MLS tried to bring back the Cosmos (they already have the Sounders, Timbers, Whitecaps, Earthquakes, etc) but Peppe Pinton could not negotiate a reasonable price for the trademark. It was finally sold in the hopes of building a true soccer academy with a pro team (NY2 in MLS expansion terms). They hired Eric Cantona. They have since run a storied NYC youth club into the ground and had a team of players wearing Cosmos uniforms play in Paul Scholes testimonial match vs. Manchester United, and getting crushed in the process.
There are some in NYC still holding out hope for this NY2 team to come into existence, but like Red Bulls, they will have trouble getting a stadium in NYC proper.
Somethings are better left as a memory. The Cosmos just might be one of them.
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Soccer is the next big thing in America. And it has been since 1980.
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