When Beckenbauer arrived at the New York Cosmos in 1977, he was one of many overseas superstars lured in by the promise of the North American Soccer League. The league was born in 1968 however launched into public consciousness in 1975 with the arrival of Brazilian legend Pele.
“If you go there [to an established European or South American club], all you can win is a championship,” Cosmos GM Clive Toye informed Pele at the time. “Come here, and you can win a country.”
Pele’s arrival galvanized the league and attracted extra stars, together with Johan Cruyff, George Best and Gerd Müller. Many got here in the twilight years of their careers, hoping to earn cash and fame in the new American soccer market, however Beckenbauer was totally different. He arrived at the top of his powers, simply three years after successful the World Cup with West Germany. In some ways, he took an even bigger likelihood on American soccer than any of them.
And that likelihood paid off.
Although the NASL folded after 16 wild years of extra and mismanagement, soccer in America continued to develop. The “super team” mannequin of the New York Cosmos went on to encourage MLS’ Los Angeles Galaxy, which signed David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to spice up its world reputation. And, of course, the Galaxy’s success went on to encourage Inter Miami, which signed the greatest participant in the world, Lionel Messi, in July 2023.
“It’s night and day,” Beckenbauer informed Sports Illustrated about the distinction between the NASL and MLS. “We were like the pioneers. But we played on artificial turf and on baseball fields with lines. Now you have your own stadiums. It’s different. Soccer is part of the sports now in the U. S.”
Without the co-sign of gamers like Beckenbauer, skilled soccer in America won’t have survived the useless interval between the dying of the NASL in 1984 and the beginning of MLS in 1996. It was the magic that folks like Beckenbauer introduced — and the promise that it could possibly be recaptured — that stored the proverbial lights on for soccer in the United States.
There’s extra to Beckenbauer than simply his American legacy. He’s an advanced determine in soccer, one equally influential on the area, in the technical field and in the boardroom, and he made selections that many followers proceed to query.
But as media, followers and trade replicate on Beckenbauer’s dying and affect, we should not neglect the splendidly symbiotic relationship he constructed with American soccer in the Seventies. His love of our sport —and our love of him in return — sowed the seeds of the glossy, wholesome and inclusive skilled American soccer pyramid we cherish right this moment.
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