Cosmos back on the orbit of American football as they play friendlies in Dubai to prepare

The club, with its rich history and past glory, is plotting the way back to American football elite through the second division and starting from preparation in Dubai.

Manea Mohammed of Shabab, left, and Mads Kristiansand of NewYork Cosmos were entangled in action during their friendly. Satish Kumar / The National

DUBAI // Once dubbed “the most glamorous team in world football” with legends such as Pele, Carlos Alberto and Franz Beckenbauer on their team sheet, and average attendances in excess of 47,000, the New York Cosmos have set their sights on a return to the arc lights, but gradually.

Boasting celebrity fans including Robert Redford, Steven Spielberg and Mick Jagger at their prime in the 1970s, Cosmos folded in 1984 because of declining revenues and rising wages.

But they are back, promising to re-ignite football in the US.

“We are going to bring the beautiful game back to New York,” Pele, the honorary president, said at the club’s relaunch three years ago, and the journey since has been slow but steady.

Last year, the Cosmos appeared in the North American Soccer League, the second division of American football, winning the Fall Season Championship and the Soccer Bowl.

This year, they are being tipped for a treble – the Spring and Fall Championships and the Bowl – and manager Giovanni Savarese said he could not have asked for a better place than Dubai to start preparing for their second season in the NASL.

"Yes, we are the defending champions but we still have work to do," Savarese said after losing to Al Shabab 1-0 in a friendly last night, with Edgar Bruno scoring for the hosts in the 37th minute. "We are still not feeling 100 per cent, we still have to work on a couple of things tactically.

“So definitely we are on the right path, but we need to do a lot more work and we feel we are in the perfect location to be able to improve as a team.”

Cosmos will be playing two more friendly matches here, against Al Wasl on March 11 and Emirates on March 16, before flying out the next day for the start of their season in April.

Savarese is happy with the course Cosmos have taken since rebirth, but said there is still a lot of hard work ahead before they can start enjoying the status they once did.

“In the past, the club wasn’t built from one day to the other,” he said. “It took a few years and then we were able to create an unbelievable organisation with some of the best players in the world.

“Right now our main concern is to create a true soccer club. We want to be a true soccer club that can be respected because it has everything that a proper club should have, from top to bottom – a football club that can play good soccer, a club that can be respected when we go to some places because they see that we try to play good soccer – and build up from there.

“We are looking, not for names, we are looking for good soccer players, and if they come with names and are going to be able to input into it, that will be a great situation. We have now Marcos Senna and he has been an example for everybody.

“We have also a great organisation, a great ownership group that is committed to make sure Cosmos stays for a long time.

“What the future is going to bring in one, two or three years, we’ll see. But we are very committed to build a stadium because I think from that point, we are going to grow a lot bigger.”

Still a big brand in the world of football, despite their three-decade hiatus, Cosmos have been attracting plenty of attention and sponsors since their return, and Fly Emirates have bought their jersey rights.

“We feel it is a privilege to have Emirates as our sponsor because they only sponsor big clubs, clubs that are respected and for us to be attached to those clubs like Real Madrid, PSG, Arsenal, AC Milan and others, it’s a great privilege,” said Savarese.

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