CUBA-USA/COSMOS UPDATE Pele hopes Cosmos match in Cuba aims will improve U.S.-Cuba ties

Record ID: 149764

  • Title: CUBA-USA/COSMOS UPDATE Pele hopes Cosmos match in Cuba aims will improve U.S.-Cuba ties
  • Date: 2nd June 2015
  • Summary: HAVANA, CUBA (JUNE 01, 2015) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF ENTRANCE TO PRESS CONFERENCE, POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHS BY EDSON ARANTES DO NASCIMENTO, "PELE," AND U.S. COSMOS STAR RAUL GONZALEZ, BETTER KNOWN AS "RAUL" LOGO OF NEW YORK COSMOS WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish / Portuguese) SOCCER LEGEND EDSON ARANTES DO NASCIMENTO, "PEL
  • Embargoed: 17th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Cuba
  • Country: Cuba
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAEJ0A9H8CXLXNMJKVDI2GRUBI4
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: At a news conference Monday (June 1) in Havana, Brazilian football great Pele said he hopes Tuesday's (June 2) friendly between the Cuban national team and his former club the New York Cosmos will foster better relations between the United States and Cuba, which have embarked on detente.
    The Cosmos, now in the second tier of U.S. professional soccer, have scheduled the first match of an American professional sports team in Cuba since Cuba and the United States announced in December they would seek to end more than five decades of animosity.
    "I'm happy when there are moments of peace, moments to bring people together. It's a great joy to be here during this time when soccer is helping bring peace for Cuba and the United States," Pele, 74, whose real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, told a news conference to promote the match in Havana.
    U.S.-Cuban relations have undergone rocky stretches, particularly in the early 1960s when the United States organized invasion of Cuba by a force of Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs, and when Washington and Moscow nearly came to nuclear war over Soviet missiles stationed in Cuba.
    Relations remained sour even after the fall of the Soviet Union until last December, when U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced separately and simultaneously they would seek to improve relations.
    Since then, the United States and Cuba have held bilateral talks in both capitals and the two presidents have met face-to-face at a regional summit in Panama, moving them closer to restoring diplomatic ties.
    "The sport, I think, in general, brings (people) together and I hope this match will be one more step toward much better relations. I think above all for us, for all my team-mates, this is a great opportunity to be here, to get to know this country a little bit, this culture, and tomorrow we will try to help the fans who go to the match enjoy it with a great game. And I greatly hope this is the first of many more teams from the United States coming to Cuba to play," said Raul, 37, the former Real Madrid striker and Spain team captain who is the international star on today's Cosmos.
    The Cosmos became a sensation in the 1970s when they signed Pele and other international stars to play in the North American Soccer League (NASL). The league folded in the 1980s and was re-established in late 2009 as the second tier of U.S. club football, below Major League Soccer (MLS).
    Now the league hopes to make inroads into Cuba, where soccer is gaining on baseball as the country's most popular sport.
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