Pelé honored as present-day New York Cosmos search for glory of their own

Pelé remains a selling point for the Cosmos. Photograph: New York Cosmos

Never mind the weight of history, the giant book on Pelé propped up at the entrance of the Shuart Stadium press box looked like it could break a foot.

Pelé was very much in the building on Sunday, as the New York Cosmos kicked off their first full NASL season since their revival. Though, of course, this being the Cosmos – trying to thread the needle as a viable present day New York soccer franchise, while leveraging the glamour of their 70s heyday – Pelé is never far away.

The building in question on Sunday was Hofstra University's soccer stadium in Long Island – current home to the NASL champion Cosmos (they won the league’s Soccer Bowl last year, by winning the fall season in their first campaign back, then beating the spring champions, and Sunday’s opponents, Atlanta Silverbacks, in the final in Atlanta). Opening day 2014 was a themed Pelé day, and retro green Cosmos shirts dotted the stadium emblazoned with the great Brazilian’s name as he was paraded before kick off.

It capped a celebration of Pelé started by the presentation of an honorary degree by Hofstra University this weekend — itself the centerpiece of one of the largest soccer conferences ever held in the USA, 'Soccer as the Beautiful Game: Football’s Artistry, Identity and Politics' featuring over 100 speakers from around the world, including the likes of David Goldblatt ('The Ball is Round') and an intriguing proposition from Dr Jennifer Doyle, of the University of California, Riverside: 'Imagining a World Without a World Cup: An Abolitionist Perspective'.

It’s the type of event that Europeans are familiar with in World Cup years, as other realms of our culture make a sometimes reluctant concession that football exists, or attempt to recuperate it as somehow legitimate for artistic or academic consideration. But a conference on this scale in the USA would have been unthinkable before the Pelé NASL days, or in the so-called “lost generation” years after his and the NASL’s departure, and before the USA hosted the World Cup in 1994 (and realistically for most of the years since).

But in 2014, while the presence of probably the greatest player of the 20th century was undoubtedly a unique selling point for the conference, the life of the game in the US has reached a point where the constituency of writers, artists, academics, and students in attendance would doubtless have assembled anyway, as the game gains an increasing foothold in the country.

Yet for the Cosmos, looking to gain their own foothold in a crowded New York sports market about to get even more crowded as New York FC commence play in 2015, and with existing MLS team New York Red Bulls having topped their own regular season standings last year, the association with Pelé is still vital. This even as the shadow his reputation casts is out of all proportion to the Cosmos’ current, and modest, attempts to rebuild the team on the field in the revived NASL.

The current campaign on the field got off to the best possible start — by half-time on Sunday, the Cosmos were 3-0 up on last year’s beaten finalists, Atlanta, who will themselves soon know what it’s like to compete in a crowded local marketplace, with the expected announcement this week that Arthur Blank’s new Atlanta Falcons stadium complex in the city will also play host to the next MLS expansion team.

It’s a reminder that while the Cosmos have quickly resumed their pre-eminent position as flat-track bullies in the NASL, the presence of MLS means that in the eyes of US Soccer, they are now officially a second division team, albeit with a history like no other. But running off at full-time after a 4-0 win over a demoralized Atlanta, the present-day Cosmos are doing their best to write a revision of that history.

The current Cosmos captain, and in fact the first signing of their modern era, Carlos Mendes, opened the scoring on Sunday, with what was actually his first competitive goal as a player (he evidently enjoyed it so much he soon added another). Mendes may never be invited to have a plaque dedicated to him before a future Cosmos game, as Pelé was before kick off – he certainly won’t have a giant coffee table book decorated with pictures of his career laid out for spectators to peruse after donning white gloves. But he’s part of a project that’s trying to inch towards a sustainable future, one game at a time, while learning to live with the shadow cast by its past.