Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos Page #3

a successful New York franchise.

The stars would align for the NASL

just south of the border

in Mexico City at the 1970 World Cup.

'Goooooal!'

'Nesuhi and I gave

a big party at the World Cup.'

We invited Pel,

and all of them came to our party.

'I just happened

to gatecrash into a party.'

And a gentleman there introduced

himself. He said, "Come on in.

"My name is Nesuhi Ertegun."

So right then, that night,

I met his brother as well, Ahmet.

And we arranged to meet

in New York later.

Nesuhi and Ahmet

returned to Manhattan

and held Steve Ross to his promise.

'Steve and I called

eight other executives.'

We got them to put in $35,000 each.

I did it. Steve did it.

What's a million dollars between friends?

They hired Clive Toye

as general manager

before most of them

had ever seen a game.

'Nesuhi said,

"I'm going to take you to St Louis.'

"'The hotbed of soccer.

This is where soccer is really big."

'We got there,

and 340 people were in the stands.

'I counted them. 340 people.'

We watched the game

and I never knew what a header was.

I thought giving great head

was something else!

'I looked at Steve and said,

"We love Nesuhi. We love Ahmet.'

"But this is going to be a disaster!"

'The league was nothing to talk

about. It was really semi-professional.'

And we had a rag-tag team.

They started recruiting players.

All they needed was a name.

The previous New York professional club

had been the New York Mets,

short for metropolitan, so I thought,

"What's bigger than metropolitan?"

I came up with cosmopolitan,

and suddenly it clicked, "Cosmos".

'That's how the Cosmos

became the Cosmos.'

Toye's first hire was an English

player/coach named Gordon Bradley.

Clive was in the office doing his planning

and his thing.

I was out in the field, coaching.

My name is Gordon Bradley

and I'm a professional soccer player.

A lot of you have probably

not seen this game before,

but I think it's

the greatest game in the world.

In the early years, Bradley and Toye

built the team with players

mainly from New York's

amateur leagues.

'The North American

Soccer League was professional.'

But in essence

it was a semi-pro league.

We didn't make a lot of money.

We practiced twice a week.

We all worked for a living.

I worked for an architectural firm.

I was teaching at a high-school and then

playing for the Cosmos on the side.

I'll never forget the first contract

I signed. I was so proud.

I thought I needed an agent.

"How do I negotiate?"

Then the coach Gordon Bradley said,

"I'll offer you $2100 for the season."

I said, "Well, what would you say

if I said no?"

He said, "I couldn't care less."

So I said, "OK, yeah. I'll sign."

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