List of New York Cosmos (1970–1985) players

The New York Cosmos were an American soccer club based in New York. The club was formed in 1970 by brothers Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, with the support of Warner Brothers president Steve Ross, and entered into the North American Soccer League (NASL), which had itself been founded in 1968. Backed by Ross's company, Warner Communications, the Cosmos became the league's strongest club, both on and off the field.^[1] The team won five titles while drawing attendances unprecedented in American club soccer.^[2] The Cosmos' commercial and on-field success declined during the early 1980s, along with the NASL itself, and after the league folded in 1984 the club dissolved a year later.^[3] A new Cosmos team, formed in 2010,^[4] is scheduled to begin play in the new second-tier North American Soccer League (contested since 2011) during the 2013 season.^[5][6]

The Cosmos before playing a friendly match v. Club Cipolletti in Argentina, March 1980. Giorgio Chinaglia (9), Franz Beckenbauer (6) and Carlos Alberto Torres (5) were part of the line up

All players who played at least one league match for the Cosmos are given below. A total of 155 outfield players did so, along with 17 goalkeepers, giving a total of 172. Including the United States and Canada, a total of 34 nations from across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa were represented on the team's rosters over the course of its history. After the United States, the most common nation of origin was England, with 17 Cosmos players; Canada followed with 15. NASL all-star teams included 18 of the club's players in total. Eleven players who appeared as guests in exhibition games are listed separately below.

Regular season players

Keys

• GK: Goalkeeper
• DF: Defender
• MF: Midfielder
• FW: Forward

Pelé is the only player to have his number retired when the team put his #10 out of circulation in 1977

Franz Beckenbauer with Argentine Diego Maradona in 1980

Giorgio Chinaglia, Cosmos' all-time leading scorer

Charlie Aitken, seen in 2006

Ron Atanasio, pictured in 2010 with Cosmos memorabilia

Carlos Alberto Torres had two tenures on the Cosmos, 1977–80, and 1982

Mordechai Spiegler, right, pictured in 2008 with broadcaster Yoram Arbel

Władysław Żmuda, seen in 2007

Shep Messing, the Cosmos' goalkeeper from 1973 to 1974, then again from 1976 to 1977 and finally for three games in 1984, reports on a New York Red Bulls – Philadelphia Union match in 2010

Name	Country	Pos.	Tenure	No.	Ref.
Laurie Abrahams	England	FW	1984–85	14	[7]
Norberto Luna	United States	FW	1982-84		[7]
Chris Agoliati	United States	MF	1977	33	–
Charlie Aitken	Scotland	DF	1976–77	17	–
Dino Alberti	Canada	GK	1980–82	27	–
Carlos Alberto	Brazil	DF	1977–80, 1982	25, 5	–
Luis Alberto	United States	MF	1984–85	18	–
Amr Aly	United States	FW	1984–85	13	–
Angelo Anastasio	United States	DF	1974–75	22	–
Ron Atanasio	United States	FW	1978–79	26	–
Garry Ayre	Canada	DF	1978–79	24	–
Boris Bandov	United States	MF	1979–82	18	–
Dominick Barczewski	United States	DF	1981–82	25	–
Franz Beckenbauer	West Germany	DF	1977–80, 1983	6	–
Hubert Birkenmeier	West Germany	GK	1979–85	1, 19	–
Richard Blackmore	England	GK	1972	0	–
Vladislav Bogićević	Yugoslavia	MF	1978–84	8	–
Chico Borja	United States	FW	1981–82, 1984	28	–
Gordon Bradley	United States	DF	1971–75	24	[A]
Jack Brand	Canada	GK	1978	0	–
David Brcic	United States	GK	1977–79, 1981–84	20, 21	–
Ivan Buljan	Yugoslavia	DF	1981–82	22	–
Roberto Cabañas	Paraguay	FW	1980–84	19, 9	–
Omar Caetano	Uruguay	MF	1975	15	–
Dan Canter	United States	DF	1984–85	3, 18	–
Antonio Carbognani	Argentina	MF	1979	16	–
Emanuel Carrette	Brazil	FW	1974	12	–
Carlos Caszely	Chile	FW	1984	16	–
Delices Chardin	Haiti	DF	1971	12	–
Giorgio Chinaglia	Italy	FW	1976–85	9 [n 1]	–
Richard Chinapoo	Trinidad and Tobago	DF	1982–83	14, 30, 33	–
Chinesinho	Brazil	MF	1971	7	–
Dave Clements	Northern Ireland	MF	1976–77	6, 26	–
Elvis Comrie	United States	FW	1984–85	11	–
Julio Correa	Uruguay	MF	1975	7	–
Everald Cummings	Trinidad and Tobago	MF	1972–73	20	–
Oscar Damiani	Italy	FW	1984	7, 31	–
Rick Davis	United States	MF	1978–84	17, 6	–
Malcolm Dawes	England	DF	1973–74	5, 8, 6	–
Dé	Brazil	DF	1975	14	–
Roberto De Oliveira	United States	FW	1977	34	–
Pedro DeBrito	United States	MF	1984	22	–
Jaime Delgado	Ecuador	FW	1971	7	–
Ferdinando De Matthaeis	Italy	FW	1982, 1983–84	29	–
Angelo DiBernardo	United States	FW	1980–85	16	–
Mike Dillon	England	DF	1975–77	20	–
Vito Dimitrijević	Yugoslavia	MF	1977–78	3, 15	–
Frank Donlavey	Canada	DF	1971, 1974	4, 3	–
Tony Donlic	United States	FW	1975–78	7, 16	–
Jeff Durgan	United States	DF	1980–82, 1983–85	4, 24, 25	–
Kevin Eagan	United States	DF	1979	22	–
Keith Eddy	England	DF	1976–77	5	–
Andranik Eskandarian	Iran	DF	1979–85	2	–
Gary Etherington	United States	FW	1977–79	21	–
Drew Ferguson	Canada	MF	1984–85	17	–
Vidal Fernandez	United States	MF	1980	26	–
Tony Field	England	FW	1976–77	7	–
Joey Fink	United States	FW	1973–75	12	–
Kyriakos Fitilis	Greece	MF	1971	19	–
Santiago Formoso	USA	DF	1978–79	5, 25	–
Mike Fox	United States	MF	1983–84	23	–
Chance Fry	United States	FW	1984–85	7	–
Luis de la Fuente	Spain	DF	1975	22, 23	–
Terry Garbett	England	MF	1976–79	8, 14	–
Darryl Gee	United States	FW	1980–84	24, 5	–
Gerry Gray	Canada	MF	1983–84	25	–
Alan Green	United States	FW	1983–85	15	–
Fred Grgurev	United States	FW	1978	18	–
Ernie Hannigan	Scotland	FW	1971	6	–
Theodor Hasekidis	Greece	FW	1971	5	–
Helenio Herrera	Spain	FW	1972	9	–
Randy Horton	Bermuda	FW	1971–74	16	–
Larry Hulcer	United States	MF	1980–81	12	–
Stephen Hunt	England	FW	1977–78, 1982	11, 17	[B]
Paul Hunter	Canada	DF	1977	26	–
Robert Iarusci	Canada	DF	1977–78, 1981–83	3, 19	–
Godfrey Ingram	England	FW	1979	30	[7]
Harold Jarman	England	MF	1974	7	–
Josef Jelinek	Czechoslovakia	FW	1972–73	10	–
Karol Kapciński	Poland	DF	1971–73	19	–
Erhardt Kapp	United States	DF	1981–83	26, 17	–
John Kerr	Canada	MF	1972–75	6, 18	–
Emmanuel Kofie	Ghana	GK	1971–72	21, 1	–
Konrad Kornek	Poland	GK	1971	1	–
Refik Kozić	Yugoslavia	DF	1983–84	22	–
Kurt Kuykendall	United States	GK	1975–76	0, 1	–
Alfredo Lamas	Uruguay	MF	1975	5	–
Farouk Gaafar	Egypt	MF	1979–80	4	–
Roberto Landi	Italy	GK	1983		[10]
Doc Lawson	United States	DF	1984–85	19, 32	–
Mark Liveric	United States	FW	1974–75	8, 29	–
Flemming Lund	Denmark	FW	1985	30, 15	–
Barry Mahy	United States	DF	1971–75	2	–
Carmine Marcantonio	Canada	MF	1984	27	–
Gil Mărdărescu	Romania	MF	1975	14	–
Manoel Maria	Brazil	FW	1975	19	–
Marinho	Brazil	DF	1979	3	–
Juan Carlos Masnik	Uruguay	DF	1975	3	–
Andy Mate	United States	MF	1971	9	–
Charlie McCully	United States	FW	1971–72	3	–
Henry McCully	United States	FW	1973	3	–
Wes McLeod	Canada	MF	1984–85	8	–
Robert Meschbach	United States	MF	1985	32	–
Shep Messing	United States	GK	1973–74, 1976–77, 1984	1, 33	–
Horst Meyer	West Germany	DF	1971	6	–
Wilberforce Mfum	Ghana	FW	1971–72	17	–
Ramón Mifflin	Peru	MF	1975–78	15	–
Maurizio Minieri	Italy	GK	1971	23	–
Charlie Mitchell	Scotland	DF	1976	19	–
Radi Mitrovic	Yugoslavia	DF	1971	12	–
Bela Monoki	Hungary	MF	1974	15, 22	–
Nelsi Morais	Brazil	MF	1975–80	14, 3, 31, 23, 30	–
Steve Moyers	United States	FW	1982–84	12	–
Johan Neeskens	Netherlands	MF	1979–84	13	–
Robert Neubauer	West Germany	DF	1972	5	–
Mickey Niblock	Northern Ireland	FW	1973	7	–
David Norris	Canada	FW	1981–82	23	–
Sam Nusum	Bermuda	GK	1975	1	–
Yasin Özdenak	Turkey	GK	1977–79	1	[11]
Alan O'Neill	England	MF	1971	8	–
Tommy Ord	England	FW	1975–76	23, 9	–
Oscar	Brazil	DF	1980	4	–
Andy Papoulias	United States	MF	1985	31	–
Américo Paredes	Uruguay	FW	1975	9	–
Andrew Parkinson	United States	FW	1984–85	20	–
Rudolph Pearce	Jamaica	DF	1971	18, 24	–
Pelé	Brazil	FW	1975–77	10 [n 2]	–
Tony Picciano	United States	DF	1975	5, 18	–
Denny Poe	United States	MF	1977–78		[14]
David Primo	Israel	DF	1975	22	–
Karim Abdul Razak	Ghana	MF	1979–81	28	–
Gerry Reardon	Ireland	MF	1984	30	–
Len Renery	United States	DF	1973–74	23	–
Bob Rigby	United States	GK	1976	0, 1	–
Wim Rijsbergen	Netherlands	DF	1979–83	15	–
Rildo	Brazil	DF	1977	23	–
Germy Rivera	Ecuador	MF	1974	20	–
Julio César Romero	Paraguay	MF	1980–83	7	–
Werner Roth	United States	DF	1972–79	4	–
Karol Rotner	Israel	DF	1973	2	–
Brian Rowan	Scotland	DF	1975–76	17, 3	–
Greg Ryan	United States	DF	1979	12	–
Carlos Scott	United States	MF	1974–75	10, 17	–
Seninho	Portugal	FW	1978–82	11, 12	–
Steve Sharp [n 3]	United States	FW	1985		[citation needed]
Mordechai Spiegler	Israel	FW	1974–77	21	–
Jorge Siega	United States	FW	1971–76	11	–
Bobby Smith	United States	DF	1976–78	12	–
Jomo Sono	South Africa	FW	1977	22	–
Scoop Stanisic	United States	GK	1984–85	0
Stan Startzell	United States	MF	1972	14	–
Jan Steadman	Trinidad and Tobago	DF	1971	20	–
Scott Strasburg	United States	FW	1977	30	–
Siegfried Stritzl	United States	MF	1971–73	15	–
Jerry Sularz	Poland	GK	1973–75	0	–
Stanisław Terlecki	Poland	FW	1983–84	14	–
Brian Tinnion	England	FW	1976	18	–
Jadranko Topić	Yugoslavia	FW	1977	18	–
Dennis Tueart	England	FW	1978–79	7	–
Bruce Twamley	Canada	DF	1977	22, 2	–
François Van der Elst	Belgium	FW	1980–81	20	–
Tibor Vigh	Canada	FW	1973	18	–
Geoff Vowden	England	FW	1974	19	–
Dragan Vujovic	Yugoslavia	FW	1983–85	11, 13	–
Michael Wardrop	England	MF	1974	14	–
Steve Wegerle	South Africa	FW	1981–82	14	–
Bruce Wilson	Canada	DF	1980	3	–
Giuseppe Wilson	Italy	DF	1978–79	23	–
Ralph Wright	England	DF	1973	14	–
Ceyhan Yazar	Turkey	FW	1971	8	–
John Young	Scotland	MF	1971	5	–
Roby Young	Israel	FW	1972–73	8	–
Dieter Zajdel	Poland	MF	1972–73	22	–
Władysław Żmuda	Poland	DF	1984	6, 34	–

Notes

1. Chinaglia's #9 would be retired in June 2014 by the current Cosmos franchise.^[8][9]
2. When Pelé retired from football in 1977, the number was put out of circulation by the franchise.^[12] and retired again in July 2013 by the second club of the same name.^[13]
3. Played only in the indoor soccer team.

By nationality

Country	Number of players
Argentina	1
Belgium
Bermuda
Brazil
Canada
Chile
Czechoslovakia
Denmark
Ecuador
England
West Germany
Ghana
Greece
Haiti
Hungary
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Netherlands
Northern Ireland
Paraguay
Peru
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Scotland
South Africa
Spain
Trinidad and Tobago
Turkey
United States
Uruguay
Yugoslavia

Guest players

Some well-known players from other teams turned out for the Cosmos in exhibition matches on a game-by-game basis when New York traveled on overseas tours. These guest players are listed below, along with the year they appeared in Cosmos colors.

Name	Country	Position	Year
John Coyne	England	FW	1975
Gordon Banks	England	GK	1976
Clyde Best	Bermuda	FW	1976
Clodoaldo	Brazil	MF	1977
Rivellino	Brazil	MF	1978
Alan Willey	England	FW	1978
Stewart Jump	England	DF	1978
Joe Horváth	Hungary	MF	1978
Laszlo Harsanyi	Hungary	DF	1978
Arsène Auguste	Haiti	DF	1978
Johan Cruyff	Netherlands	MF	1978 [n 1]

Notes

1. Only played in two exhibition matches.

Footnotes

A. ^ Bradley held the position of player-coach.

B. ^ Hunt's 1982 spell was on loan from Coventry City (England).

C. ^ Ingram played for the Cosmos on loan from Luton Town (England).

D. ^ Yasin Özdenak played in the United States under the name Erol Yasin, and is generally referred to as such in NASL records.^[15]

E. ^ Although Eskandarian signed permanently for the Cosmos in 1979, he is counted as a guest player for 1978, and so appears on both lists.

References

Bibliography

• Jose, Colin (2003). North American Soccer League Encyclopedia. Haworth, New Jersey: St. Johann Press. ISBN 1-878282-25-5.
• Newsham, Gavin (2006). Once in a Lifetime: The Incredible Story of the New York Cosmos. New York, New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-4288-5.
• Toye, Clive (2006). A Kick in the Grass. Haworth, New Jersey: St Johann Press. ISBN 978-1-878282-47-7.

General

• Players sourced to: Jose (2003).
• Background sourced to: Jose (2003), Newsham (2006) and Toye (2006).

Notes

1. Bell, Jack (2008-05-01). "Gordon Bradley, Who Nurtured U.S. Soccer, Dies at 74". The New York Times. New York, New York. Retrieved 2011-01-21.
2. Newsham, Gavin (2005-06-10). "When Pele and Cosmos were kings". The Guardian. London: Guardian News & Media. Retrieved 2011-01-20. Owned by Warner Communications, the New York Cosmos were, like many other franchises, a team going nowhere fast. A ragbag assembly of students, foreigners and part-timers, they played their football at a high school athletics ground in front of row after row of empty seats. Nobody knew about them, let alone cared. ... On the road the Cosmos sold out every game ("like travelling with the Rolling Stones," says the club's travelling secretary Steve Marshall). In New York they were media darlings, idols of 77,000 fans (including Mick Jagger, Henry Kissinger, Robert Redford and Steven Spielberg) and virtual residents at Studio 54. In two years, they became an organisation with the cultural visibility no other arm of the Warner portfolio could boast. It mattered not that the club did not make a single cent in their 15-year history. The Cosmos had become the hottest ticket in town; Ross even had a seat belt installed in his spot in the upper tier, just in case he got overexcited and toppled over the edge.
3. Lindgren, Hugo (2006-06-25). "Pinup Goalie: Shep Messing". New York Movies. New York, New York: New York Media LLC. Retrieved 2009-06-16.
4. Ogden, Mark (2011-01-19). "Eric Cantona's appointment at the New York Cosmos part of battle to restore football to heart of the Big Apple". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 2011-01-29.
5. O'Brien, Seamus (2012-07-12). "New York Cosmos Returns to NASL". nycosmos.com. New York City: New York Cosmos. Retrieved 2012-07-12.
6. O'Mard, Marcus Kwesi (2012-07-12). "Report: New York Cosmos Plan to Make NASL Return in 2013". Watertown, Massachusetts: New England Sports Network. Retrieved 2012-07-12.
7. NASL NY Cosmos rosters on NASL jerseys.com
8. "Cosmos retiring Giorgio Chinaglia's No. 9 shirt". Goal. 5 June 2014.
9. Martinez, Dave (25 April 2014). "Cosmos to honor Chinaglia, retire number in season-ending ceremony". Empire of Soccer.com. Archived from the original on 1 May 2014.
10. Roberto Landi: "Per crescere il calcio sammarinese ha bisogno di allenatori professionisti" on RTV San Marino, 23 Jan 2023
11. Yasin Özdenak (New York Cosmos) at Giants Stadion, New York, US, 19 Aug 1979 – Photo by Masahide Tomikoshi
12. "Heritage". New York Cosmos.
13. Wright, Chris (15 July 2013). "Cosmos honor Pele by retiring number - almost 37 years after they already did". ESPN. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
14. 2009 MCCC Men's Soccer Hall of Fame Inducts, 3 Oct 2009
15. Litterer, David. "The Year in American Soccer - 1977". American Soccer History Archives. Archived from the original on 2013-07-13. Retrieved 2011-01-20.