This is the story of a star, at the twilight of his career. That of a pioneer, who put football on the map, in the land of Uncle Sam. That of Pelé, Brazilian football legend, considered one of the three greatest footballers of all time, if not the bigger. This story is told to us by the American Werner Roth, 74, his teammate for three seasons (1975-77) and his captain during his last year at the New York Cosmos, that of all madness.
This summer, for Prolongation, he will deliver eight poignant testimonies on the passage of the icon in the Big Apple. For this first episode, he talks about soccer before the arrival of Pelé and the birth of the Cosmos.
“I remember professional football was in its infancy, but soccer had been played in the United States for a century already. We were somewhat at the same level as other countries, where football was only amateur. There was no professional league because American interest in the sport was very limited in the 1960s. But with immigration, it began to be more and more practiced and popular. The 1966 World Cup final, between England and Germany, recorded exceptional audience ratings in the United States. From then on, a real dynamic was created in the amateur environment and even in semi-pro.
I remember that there were many attempts to bring international clubs to play on American soil. But all these efforts were in vain because it did not include a real development strategy to reach the American community. There were many semi-professional leagues that had been set up, but they were generally reserved for ethnic communities in the northeast of the country. I had German origins and was born in post-war Yugoslavia in 1948. My parents left to live in the United States when I was 8 years old. We moved to New York and it became my home. I managed to join the German-American League, one of the most important semi-professional leagues of the time.
Nobody could really make money from football so everyone worked on the side. I started working for an architectural firm after my high school years at Brooklyn Technical High School and then studying architecture. I practiced several times a week after my working days and I played…
