New York Cosmos Announces Relaunch With Pele As Honorary President

Forget David Beckham and Thierry Henry, the biggest name in U.S. soccer re-emerged Sunday when the New York Cosmos announced its relaunch.

The franchise, which featured Pele and Franz Beckenbauer, ceased operations in the 1980s as ownership fluctuated and the NASL crumbled.

Since then, G. Peppe Pinton had held the rights to the name, until a group led by Paul Kemsley, an English businessman who previously held an interest in Tottenham Hotspur, bought it.

The new Cosmos has already partnered with Queens-based youth club BW Gottschee. Together they will field youth teams called the Cosmos Academy in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy. The Cosmos also bought the Copa NYC tournament, an competition in New York which has a 16-year history.

Eventually, the club wants to return to the highest level -- in this case, Major League Soccer.

"Our plan has several phases, but if you fast-forward, it’s our aspiration to play at the highest level in this country, and that’s MLS," said Joe Fraga, executive director of the new Cosmos, told the New York Times. "And we are serious. We want to make it relevant again; we want kids to know what the Cosmos were and are, to bring the soccer dream back to the city.

"Pelé is our face, and you couldn't do better than that, not just for the Cosmos, but for soccer in general. Our goal is to respect history and the legacy, and make it relevant now."

The Brazilian legend played for the New York Cosmos in its glory days in the 1970s.

"This is fantastic," Pelé said, according to the New York Times. "We are working very hard to bring the beautiful game back to New York, and now we finally have people who support us.

"Looking back, we know mistakes were made in the league, but that happens everywhere in the world. But the football is the reality, and one day I hope to be happy to see the New York Cosmos playing the Red Bulls in the championship game."

Since reclaiming the territorial rights to a second New York team when AEG sold the MetroStars to Red Bull, MLS has never tried to hide its desire to put a club in the city proper, as opposed to in New Jersey, where the Red Bulls are based.