Pelé

Pelé came out of retirement to join the Cosmos in June 1975 on a three-year contract worth about $4.5 million. He was league MVP in 1976 and won the title in his final season in 1977, and he left the NASL a different league: crowds of a few thousand became tens of thousands wherever the Cosmos played.

born Oct. 23, 1940 (age 85), Tres Coracoes, Brazil

games
56
goals
31
assists
25

first recorded game June 18, 1975 · last recorded game Aug. 28, 1977

Career totals and dates are as recorded here.

Honors

Career totals by team

team gp g a
New York Cosmos 56 31 25

Career totals by competition

competition gp g a
NASL 56 31 25

Goals by season

top flight 0 5 10 15 1975, top flight: 5 goals 5 1975 1976, top flight: 13 goals 13 1976 1977, top flight: 13 goals 13 1977 0 1980

Season by season, clubs

team competition season gp g a
New York Cosmos NASL 1975 9 5 4
New York Cosmos NASL 1976 22 13 18
New York Cosmos NASL 1977 25 13 3
New York Cosmos NASL 1980 0 0 0

Most recent games

cmp date team r score vs g a minutes venue
AFCONq March 26, 2021 Guinea-Bissau   3 - 1 Swaziland 1 — —
NASLp Aug. 28, 1977 Cosmos   2 - 1 Seattle Sounders 0 — 90 Providence Park
NASL Aug. 24, 1977 Cosmos   4 - 1 Rochester Lancers 1 — 90 Giants Stadium
NASL Aug. 21, 1977 Cosmos   2 - 1 Rochester Lancers 0 — 90 Holleder Memorial Stadium
NASL Aug. 17, 1977 Cosmos   2 - 2 (SO) Fort Lauderdale Strikers 1 — 90 Lockhart Stadium
NASL Aug. 14, 1977 Cosmos   3 - 8 Fort Lauderdale Strikers 0 — 90 Giants Stadium
NASL Aug. 10, 1977 Cosmos   3 - 0 Tampa Bay Rowdies 2 — 90 Giants Stadium
NASL Aug. 6, 1977 Cosmos   1 - 2 Washington Diplomats 1 — 90 Robert F. Kennedy Memorial St…
NASL July 31, 1977 Cosmos   1 - 3 Connecticut Bicentennials 1 — 90 Giants Stadium
NASL July 27, 1977 Cosmos   8 - 2 Washington Diplomats 0 — 90 Giants Stadium
all 66 recorded games →

Most often alongside

Players who appeared in the most games alongside Pelé
player together share
Werner Roth 51 78%
Tony Field 49 75%
Giorgio Chinaglia 48 74%
Terry Garbett 41 63%
Nelsi Morais 40 62%
Ramon Mifflin 40 62%
Bob Smith 37 57%
Shep Messing 36 55%
Mike Dillon 34 52%
Keith Eddy 29 45%
Steve Hunt 28 43%
Charlie Aitken 23 35%

The 12 most frequent, of the 65 games Pelé has an appearance on record for. Two players count as teammates in a game when both have an appearance in it for the same club, so this is drawn from lineups rather than from rosters — and it is only as complete as the lineups are. Whole leagues here recorded none.

season salary
1975 $1670000.00