Mixing Glitz with Politics, Soccer Lands in America
Private money and public diplomacy lure the world's most famous athlete
Legendary soccer star Pele and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger shown embracing at Giants Stadium in 1977. With glitz and politics, soccer landed in America in the mid-1970s, helping to plant the seeds for the future of the sport in the U.S.
In the early 1970s, the New York Cosmos were an unremarkable, semi-profess…