Once In A Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story Of The New York Cosmos

Pele and Chinaglia enemies on and off the pitch.

Like moths to flames, footballers and hedonism are drawn to each other and the New York Cosmos soccer team of the late 70s and early 80s, played and partied hard - well hard.

I guess it's only natural when your home ground is the 80,000 capacity Giants Stadium and the team's post-match "recovery" sessions took place at the legendary Studio 54 nightclub.

The rapid rise and fall of the Cosmos is documented superbly in the "Once In A Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story Of The New York Cosmos" film. It's highly recommended for football fans as well as folks who love New York, especially New York in the 70s.

The Cosmos story has everything - heroes, villains (Giorgio Chinaglia), winners, losers, dreamers, realists, the greedy, the good and disco beats. It also involved anyone, who was anyone, in the US in the 70s - Ahmet and Ertegun Nesuhi, Henry Kissinger, Steve Ross and a host of Warner Brother Communications head honchos and lawyers.

For me, I loved how a bunch of journeymen footballers became team mates (almost overnight) with the greatest player on earth, Pele. And I laughed when Pele complained that his new team mates passed the ball to him too much!

Whoever you choose to believe, Pele signed a 5-year deal (including endorsement and PR rights) for close to US $5 million. By comparison, baseball legend, Hank Aaron was earning US $200,000 per year  during the same period.

Another highlight was a shoot out goal scored by Carlos Alberto. It is one of the coolest (in all senses of the word) goals you will ever see.

In recent months, the Cosmos franchise has been resurrected with Eric "Seagull" Cantona named as the team's director of sport. It seems football fans in New York and around the world are in for another rocking good time and I can't wait to see the team back on the pitch.

IMDb movie information

A good story from the New York Times about the new gold Cosmos dream