Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos Page #5

was really figuring out

how best to fit in to a team of

journeymen that were trying their best.

He talked to me a couple of times,

"Play like you're playing

a game of chess.

"Be two moves ahead of the ball."

He would finish the season

with five goals and four assists,

leading his new team

to seven wins in nine games.

Although the Cosmos missed

the playoffs, Pel had done his job.

We look at the world of the Cosmos

as before Pel and after Pel.

His mere presence shattered

attendance records

in Boston, Los Angeles

and Washington, DC.

When I'd visit my grandmother

in Washington,

you'd hope that when you were there

the Dips were playing the Cosmos

so that you could see Pel.

After he pulled a hamstring

late in the season,

more than 20,000 fans in Philadelphia

came to see him in street clothes.

'Now that the world's most famous

athlete was in New York City,'

the media could no longer

ignore the sport.

'At the White House,

President Ford found a soccer ball

'a lot more illusive than a football.'

Maybe I'd do it better with my hand

than with my foot!

While most of the press was positive,

there remained one powerful skeptic.

Dick Young wanted to meet Pel,

one-on-one, at a baseball game.

They attended a Mets game

late in the season at Shea Stadium.

'No one knows

we're at the game.'

End of the first inning,

we get a cluster of people around us.

By the third inning, we were

absolutely besieged by people.

'We couldn't control the fans.

The umpire had to call play.'

'And the security couldn't control

the stadium any more.

'It was absolute pandemonium.'

Dick Young is almost crying.

Weeping openly.

His heart is breaking that

his baseball fans recognize Pel

'who he had come to take down.'

As a reporter, he had only one recourse

and that was to write the truth.

'This game was truly a spectators' sport

and truly global.'

By the bi-centennial year of 1976,

foreign football was encroaching

even further on the American pastime.

The Cosmos moved

into Yankee Stadium.

Pel, playing just half the season in '75,

had tripled their average attendance.

Pel brought instant credibility

to the NASL.

'Because of him,

other stars came over here.'

From Gordon Banks

to Rodney Marsh to Geoff Hurst.

Even George Best touched down

in Los Angeles.

Because every other franchise thought,

"Well, if the Cosmos can do it, we can."

'When I arrived, one question

the American journalists asked me was:'

"You've been described

as the white Pel."

'And I said, "That's not quite true.

Pel is the black Rodney Marsh."'

And that didn't seem to go down too well.

For Steve Ross, the world's

greatest player was not enough.

New York likes winners.

You could have God himself

as a striker for the Cosmos,

and if you lost, nobody cares.

'I scored, I think, in

So I was the man to put the ball

in the back of the net.

Giorgio Chinaglia was the leading

scorer of the Italian club Lazio in 1975.

I was the highest paid player in Italy

and that was pretty unhealthy.

When I first met him in Rome,

'I was in his car and he had a gun

in the glove compartment.'

I said, "What the hell am I doing here?"

He thrust himself upon us.

His time in Italy was running out.

It was the easiest signing of a name

player that anyone could ever have.

'My first wife was American,

like my second wife is American.'

Therefore I said, "Let's go to America."

He talks a lot, but half of it

is not worth listening to.

The other half I wouldn't listen to either.

Giorgio Chinaglia is Italian,

speaks English with a Welsh accent,

scored a lot of goals...

And those are the only positive things

I can think to say about him.

- A very disagreeable fellow at times.

- He was a back-stabbing individual.

They probably can't stand me.

I don't give a sh*t.

Why don't these people judge me

for what I did on the field?

That'd be a nice thing, wouldn't it?

Steve Ross brought in five new players

that year, three from overseas.

None more prolific

than Giorgio Chinaglia.

I was demanding on the field,

but at the end of the day

nobody else scored more goals

in the history of the NASL than myself.

'Giorgio was extremely passionate

about soccer,'

And I think he found a like-minded

individual in my father.

Pel was his prize catch,

but Giorgio became his confidante.

Giorgio and Steve Ross

had a very strange relationship.

I don't know what it was, but he did

have Steve Ross. He had his ear.

That's absolutely the truth.

Giorgio had won a soft spot

in the heart of Steve Ross.

'I remember Ross wearing

a pair of Cosmos sweatpants

'with the number nine on it,

Chinaglia's number.'

He was wearing Chinaglia's pants.

'That was sort of a metaphor

for their relationship.'

'Giorgio was

the opposite of Pel.'

He wore his emotions

on his sleeve.

'Dynamic, big, good looking, long hair.'

'An idol like a movie star in Italy.'

'Walking down the street with Giorgio'

was like walking down the street

with Joe DiMaggio or Mickey Mantle.

'Pel reached the whole world

and got New York's attention.'

'Giorgio put it over the top

because people wanted to come'

to boo him or cheer him or yell at him

or throw things at him.

That's the kind of passion

you expect in New York.

He scored 19 goals in 19 games,

while Pel led the league in assists.

Together they took the Cosmos kicking

and screaming into the playoffs.

Giorgio was a little jealous of Pel.

He wanted to be Pel.

'I just wanted to score goals.

I didn't care who played beside me.

'I never did.'

Sometimes I wasn't liked,

but I don't care about that either.

He's the only professional player

I've ever heard who'd criticize Pel.

Off the field,

he was a loveable person.

On the field,

we had some problems, yeah.

'There was a memorable episode

in the Cosmos' locker room'

when Chinaglia said

that he was disgusted

that Pel wasn't giving him the service

that he needed to score goals.

Pel, you can imagine, is not used

to team-mates criticizing him.

He fired right back and said,

"You shoot from no f***ing angle."

And Chinaglia jumped off his stool

and shouted, "I am Chinaglia!

"If I shoot from someplace, it's because

Chinaglia can score from that place."

'And Pel was near tears.'

He shook his head

and walked out of the locker room.

'I didn't want him to do bad.

I wanted him do well.'

But he kept coming inside of me, and

I said, "One guy'll mark the two of us.

"So try to stay wide because you'll be

more effective and you'll score goals."

'All great goal scorers

have an ego.'

"Give me the ball.

Why are you giving it to Pel?"

He wants the ball. He wants to score.

'If you don't have egos in life, especially

in sports, you're not going to go very far.

The two huge personalities

did have one thing in common.

Giorgio had his locker room with his

blue velvet robe and his Chivas Regal,

pack of cigarettes, sunglasses,

he had it all.

The women went wild.

They just went wild.

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