NEW YORK (WABC) -- As word spread about soccer legend Pelé's passing, fans flocked to the Pele store in Times Square, where there is a growing tribute to the man who transformed the sport around ...

Deep in the bowels of Downing Stadium on Randall’s Island — a tiny, decrepit stadium tucked under an expressway in New York City — Pelé sits on a stool at his locker. It’s June 15th, 1975 ...

Pelé still has a presence in New York City today. The ‘Pelé Soccer’ store was opened in 2019 and sits on the iconic Times Square, a location many fans flocked to after news of his death.

Near the end of his playing career, he helped popularize soccer in the United States as a member of the New York Cosmos, leading the team to a North American Soccer League championship when he was ...

Pelé came out of brief retirement to play for the New York Cosmos. Getty Images. Pelé didn’t invent the term “the beautiful game” to describe soccer, but he certainly popularized it and ...

Pelé’s GOOOOAL is to make it back to New York in championship form. The Brazilian sports legend — who made the New York Cosmos the most famous name in American soccer in the &#82… ...

New York Cosmos star Pele flips through the air after a scissors kick during a game in Tampa against the Tampa Bay Rowdies on May 29, 1977. Photo: Jim Bourdier, AP.

By the time he turned up at nearly 6 p.m., the line outside the store stretched two full city blocks with some 1,000 fans having camped out as ... Pele and Hirshey met in New York City last ...

The NASL club made Pelé the highest-paid athlete in the world (a three-year, $7 million deal, according to a 1975 article in the New York Times announcing the signing), but it was well worth ...

Pele's arrival in New York changed that, bringing fans, visibility and glamour for a short-lived period in which football - and not the American version - become the hottest ticket in town.

Pelé still has a presence in New York City today. The ‘Pelé Soccer’ store was opened in 2019 and sits on the iconic Times Square, a location many fans flocked to after news of his death.