{"id":268287,"date":"2026-06-16T08:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/268287\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T08:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T08:18:09","slug":"how-a-new-york-schoolteacher-ended-up-on-a-soccer-team-with-pele-and-got-fired-for-a-nude-photo-shoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/268287\/","title":{"rendered":"How a New York schoolteacher ended up on a soccer team with Pele \u2014 and got fired for a nude photo shoot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Cosmos<\/a> soccer team was going nowhere fast.<\/p>\n

A disparate assembly of part-timers, students and foreigners, they played their games in the North American Soccer League (NASL) at Downing Stadium, a crumbling wreck of a venue under the Triborough Bridge at Randall\u2019s Island.<\/p>\n

Then things changed overnight with the decision to sign Brazilian soccer legend Pel\u00e9 in 1975, made by charismatic chairman Steve Ross and the club\u2019s new owners, Warner Communications, which saw the team\u2019s fortunes change overnight. <\/a><\/p>\n

Goalkeeper for the New York Cosmos, Shep Messing, posing during training in 1977. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Messing shakes hands with Pel\u00e9 in 1975 shortly after the Brazilian star, the most famous player of his generation, had joined the team. Getty Images<\/p>\n

It was an early spark in a soccer story that still resonates, especially with the United States co-hosting the World Cup and finally taking its place at the center of the global game.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the Cosmos team was their local goalkeeper,\u00a0Shep\u00a0Messing.<\/p>\n

Born in the Bronx and raised in Roslyn, Long Island, Messing never played soccer as a child but as soon as he started, aged 16, he found his calling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin three years, I was a two-time All-American in college. Then I\u2019m playing for the US Olympic team in 1972 and then I\u2019m teammates with the greatest soccer player that ever lived,\u201d he told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to pinch myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Harvard graduate, Messing worked during the day as a teacher, travelling from his home in Stamford, Conn., to teach at Westbury High School in Long Island. Once classes were finished, he trained with the Cosmos before heading back, arriving home after midnight each day.<\/p>\n

Messing and Pel\u00e9 in 2018. shepmessing\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Times were hard and Messing did what he could to get by.<\/p>\n

Even when the United States national team came calling, there wasn\u2019t any money to be made. \u201cI\u2019d get a call on a Thursday night from the US Soccer Federation to say: \u2018Hey, we\u2019ll pay you $15\u00a0per diem\u2019 to drive up and play against Italy,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t train at all and this was the national team. They just paid us a few dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in 1974 he was offered the chance to pose for a shoot in the women\u2019s magazine\u00a0\u201cViva\u201d<\/a> \u2013\u00a0and it came with a $5,000 fee.<\/p>\n

The only issue was that it was a fully nude shoot. \u201cI was broke and not making any money,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t think anyone would see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messing\u2019s cover of Viva magazine from December 1974, which got him fired from his teaching position and from his soccer team \u2014 until Pel\u00e9 demanded him back.<\/p>\n

Messing was teaching the day\u00a0\u201cViva\u201d\u00a0hit newsstands. \u201cThere I was, the goalkeeper for the Cosmos, laid out there naked, full frontal.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the school principal found out, he summoned Messing to his office, firing him on the spot \u2013 as did the New York Cosmos.<\/p>\n

In 1976, however, the Cosmos needed a goalkeeper and Pel\u00e9 demanded Messing\u2019s return.<\/a><\/p>\n

The rest is history.<\/p>\n

The New York Cosmos pose for a team portrait prior to a game on April 17, 1977. Diamond Images<\/p>\n

Messing making a staged save during a 1977 photo shoot at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Getty Images<\/p>\n

With Pel\u00e9 in the team, the New York Cosmos went stratospheric. They continued to recruit and suddenly Messing was playing in a team packed with some of the biggest names in the soccer world, including firebrand Italian Giorgio Chinaglia, Brazilian World Cup-winning captain Carlos Alberto and German icon Franz Beckenbauer. \u201cIt was one of the greatest line-ups in the history of the sport in this country,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

With a squad of 13 nationalities and some sizeable egos to placate, Messing took on the role of interpreter, shop steward and peacemaker. \u201cThere were fights all the time but we always managed to put it behind us when we played.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we did on the field was always the most important thing to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, instead of playing to a few hundred people at Downing Stadium on Randall\u2019s Island, they were darlings of the media, besieged by fans wherever they went and running out at a sold-out Giants Stadium \u2013 all thanks to the pull of Pel\u00e9.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe went from nothing to playing in front of 77,000 people every weekend,\u201d he laughs. \u201cOne day we were nobody and the next there are limos picking us up to take us right to Studio 54<\/a> after the game.<\/p>\n

A soccer crowd holds up pictures of Messing, which appear to be from his Viva magazine shoot during a game in 1984. Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just insane. It still is, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messing took advantage of his newfound celebrity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He appeared in commercials for Vidal Sassoon, Coca-Cola and Skoal chewing tobacco \u2014 and the Cosmos even made the cover of\u00a0\u201cSports Illustrated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was unheard of for a soccer team,\u201d Messing says. \u201cYou know, soccer was nowhere in this country and all of a sudden it just caught fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Messing with Pel\u00e9, enjoying a night on the town in the 1970s. shepmessing\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Messing (center) and his teammates with Copacabana club dancing girls. Franz Beckenbauer is pictured left and Giorgio Chinaglia on the right. shepmessing\/Instagram<\/p>\n

But when Pel\u00e9 called it a day<\/a> in October 1977, playing a farewell match at Giants Stadium against the only other club he played for, Brazilian team Santos, it signaled the slow decline not just of the New York Cosmos but of the NASL too, both ended in 1985.<\/p>\n

The Cosmos were revived between 2013 and 2020 and then again in 2025. They are currently based in Paterson, New Jersey, and compete in the USL League one, which was established in 2019. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Fifty years from the Cosmos\u2019 glory days, with America now hosting the World Cup, the New York team\u2019s story, equal parts chaos and magic, still feels like a pivotal moment that helped kickstart the game in the US.<\/p>\n

And for players like\u00a0Messing, who stood in the middle of it all, wringing every last drop of joy from the experience, it wasn\u2019t just history being made \u2013\u00a0it was a front-row seat to a revolution that no one quite realised was happening.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d he laughs. \u201cI certainly lived the dream.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Cosmos soccer team was going nowhere fast. A disparate assembly of part-timers, students and foreigners,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,56,63,65,64,80315,319,2085,23681,14771,33009],"class_list":["post-268287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-pele","tag-sports","tag-sports-entertainment","tag-us-soccer","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}