Terry Garbett was a gifted footballer, starting his career at Middlesbrough. He made his debut for Boro in the 1965-66 season. At the time, Pelè was a well known name in the game, Franz Beckenbauer was a young and upcoming star talent that later that year would play in the World Cup final vs. England.
Georgio Chinaglia had just made his debut at Swansea, later to appear in the 1974 World Cup for Italy, after becoming a winner of Serie A with Lazio.
Terry Garbett left Middlesbrough in 1966 joining Watford, staying at Vicarage Road for the next 6 years, moving on to Blackburn. He got his taste of English top flight football with Sheffield United in 1974, before joining New York Cosmos in 1976.
Terry Garbett showed his quality and together with other Sheffield United recruits Tony Field and Keith Eddy became familier with those mighty names, playing alongside Pelè, Franz Beckenbauer and Georgio Chinaglia, as they grabbed more headlines, but for the New York Cosmos fans, Garbett was loved and rated as good and trusted players in the team.
The NASL, in real became a massive melting pot of different football cultures and stars of football mixed with English lower league professionals who joined to shine alongside them, but no one back home looked to bother as they had in a way been totally forgotten, leaving their domestic leauges in Europe.
Garbett played in the 1977 Soccer Bowl final alongside the three Pelè, Beckenbauer and Chinaglia. In the year after, 1978, New York Cosmos was back to win the title, this time Garbett came of the bench, picking up his second final winners medal.
A lovely story of an Englishman who joined a club that became a phenomena in US Soccer, and still is a bit mystic with a story that still rolls on.
Since the original New York Cosmos club’s demise in 1985, there had been attempts to revive it. With the rise of Major League Soccer (MLS), various New York area entities—including two different ownership groups from the Metrostars/New York Red Bulls—lobbied Pinton for the acquisition of the Cosmos name. Pinton refused to sell to an MLS team, believing that the league would not acknowledge the Cosmos’ legacy. However, when old NASL names such as the San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps were revived as MLS franchises, he reconsidered. He sold the Cosmos name and brand to English businessman Paul Kemsley in 2009, whose group announced a new team with the Cosmos’ name in August 2010.
The club still exists, but not in playing action. Owner Rocco Commisso, with a worth of $8billion, has not yet been successful in his attempt to join a professional US soccer league.
Terry Garbett is still around, at the age of 79, and must be wondering if his New York Cosmos again will be back in action.
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