US soccer player Bobby Smith didn’t hold back tears as he paid tribute to “King” Pele. Former New York Cosmos teammate says.<\/p>\n
Robert “Bobby” Smith, 71, who is still athletic, told AFP at the Bob Smith Soccer Academy, his training center for budding players in his native New Jersey.<\/p>\n
At the edge of the indoor man-made field where the kids train, Smith, a top defender in his younger days, gazes lovingly at a giant poster of him and Pele, who died of cancer on Thursday at the age of 82.<\/p>\n
A professional player in Philadelphia in the 1970s, Smith signed with the New York Cosmos in 1976 for $100,000. Coming out of semi-retirement at age 34, Pele signed a contract for at least ten times that amount a year earlier and led the Cosmos to the 1977 North American Soccer Championship, scoring 31 goals in 56 appearances.<\/p>\n
Smith is a lifelong fan of Pel\u00e9. As a boy, he said, “I never thought for a second that we were on the same team.”<\/p>\n
That thought still puts a smile on his face.<\/p>\n
– “Like a little child” –<\/h2>\n
Pele played a key role in attracting a number of other talents to the Cosmos team, following American goalkeeper Bob Rigby, who was recruited at the same time as Smith, Italy’s Giorgio Chinalia and Germany. Franz Beckenbauer of Brazil and Carlos Alberto of Brazil.<\/p>\n