Tournament · 1977 · champions
North American Soccer League 1977
Pelé's last season as a professional, which ended with the New York Cosmos winning Soccer Bowl '77.
The 1977 NASL season was Pelé's third and last with the New York Cosmos. The team moved that year to the new Giants Stadium in New Jersey and briefly called itself simply "Cosmos".
Pelé, aged 36 and 37 during the season, scored 13 goals in 25 regular-season matches and four in six play-off games, by Wikipedia's count. In June he scored a hat-trick in a 3–0 win over the Tampa Bay Rowdies. A play-off match against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers drew a record crowd for American soccer, and the Cosmos won it 8–3.
The Cosmos beat the Rochester Lancers in the semi-finals and the Seattle Sounders 2–1 in Soccer Bowl '77 in Portland, Oregon, on 28 August. It was the last competitive match of his career.
The Cosmos had signed Franz Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto that year, and the coach Gordon Bradley was replaced by Eddie Firmani midway through. Pelé was named to the league's all-star team for the third year running.
The championship was the Cosmos' second North American title. His last match of all, an exhibition against Santos, came five weeks after the final.
In the regular season the Cosmos finished second in their four-team division and third of 18 teams overall. In the play-offs they beat Rochester 4–1 in the second leg of the semi-final.