One of the greatest footballers of all time, captain of arguably the ultimate World Cup-winning side and scorer of arguably the finest goal in World Cup Final history, Carlos Alberto Torres joined the New York Cosmos midseason in 1977, arriving in New York during the infamous blackout that summer.

The missing piece to the puzzle, his arrival signaled a fresh start for the club, beginning its storybook run to the title.  After a last-minute omission from Soccer Bowl ’80, Alberto joined the California Surf for a season before returning to the Cosmos in 1982.  Like his dear friend Pelé, he retired from soccer as a champion, after the Cosmos' 1-0 win over Seattle in Soccer Bowl ’82. It was his his fourth NASL championship with the team. 

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Dr. David Kilpatrick: You played on the 1970 World Cup-winning team that many call the greatest ever. Does the ’78 Cosmos team stand out to you as the best?

Carlos Alberto: Well, the team was very good. We were scared about the year after Pelé stopped playing. Everybody was very scared. What’s going to happen now without Pelé? We didn’t know if the people would still come to watch the game - 75,000 people. We got lucky because people were still supporting the New York Cosmos. Of course the President of the Cosmos [Steve Ross] brought new players like Vladislav Bogicevic and Dennis Tueart. I think it was the best team in those days. We got lucky because after 1977, without Pelé, they built a new team and we won the championship again. It was good for football in the United States.

Where did you live in New York?

I lived in Manhattan, at 54th St. and 2nd Ave. A beautiful place. They gave me the freedom to choose where I would like to live. Most of the players lived in New Jersey to pay a little less tax and I said, “I don’t care about tax. I want to live in Manhattan. I want to live in New York.”

It was a great time. It was the greatest time in my personal life, the five years I was with the New York Cosmos. To this day I have a lot of good friends in Manhattan, in New York, and we had the chance to go to the theatre, to watch shows, to see everything in New York. It was the best time to be in New York. The birth of disco. The boom of football. We had many friends from Brazil come to watch the games of the New York Cosmos when they played in Giants Stadium. It was a great, great, great time.

Do you remember any of the rock stars or other celebrities the Ertegun brothers [Cosmos' founders Ahmet and Nesuhi] would bring around?

They brought lots of very famous people to the locker room - like Mick Jagger. Once, at a discotheque, I spoke with Stevie Wonder and he said lots of good things about the Cosmos. He said to me, “I know the Cosmos are a good team. It’s nice to meet you, I wish you all the best.” Stevie Wonder was very, very nice to me. 

[The Ertegun brothers] would invite us to go everywhere. I saw two or three shows of Frank Sinatra at Carnegie Hall. They made it easy for us to see shows. It was the best five years of my personal life.

If you also ask Franz Beckenbauer, because we were always together, he’ll say the same. If you ask him, “What do you say about the years you spent in New York?” He’s going to tell you, “The best years of my life.” He says the same. The Cosmos! The Cosmos!

We’re family. How does it feel to see your club back on the pitch competing again?

It was a great answer to all the people. The fans were there, one hundred percent. For the New York fans, the game was good because we won the game, and by the end of the season the Cosmos were champions again.

What do you remember about your farewell game in ’82 against your old team, Flamengo?

When I signed the new contract with the New York Cosmos at the end of 1981, I spoke to Ahmet [Ertegun] and to Steve Ross and said, “This is the last contract I sign as a professional soccer player.” I said I have to prepare myself, after 22 years, to stop playing. I want to give my best to help you guys be champions again.

I left the team in 1981 to move to California to try to help the team there [California Surf]. Steve Ross said, “You go out there to help the team there, but at the end of the year you come back to play for the New York Cosmos.” And I spent one year out there and the Cosmos lost the championship [in a shootout after a scoreless match against the Chicago Sting in Soccer Bowl ‘81].

And when I came back, I went to the Cosmos office to talk about the new contract. I said, “No, this is my last contract. I would like to still cooperate with the New York Cosmos, but not as a soccer player. I want to have the right to have a final game against my last team.” The last team I played for in Brazil, Flamengo, was one of the greatest teams in the world at the time.

We drew the game, 3-3. It was good. The last game of my life [September 28, 1982 at Giants Stadium], and nobody wins and nobody loses. It was great.

Steve Ross – I’ll never forget what he did for me in my five years with the New York Cosmos. Always very kind to my wife and me. I had nothing but good times living in New York and playing for the New York Cosmos.