Soccer legends Pele (R) and Franz Beckenbauer pose for photographs after they ceremonially turned on the lights of the Empire State Building during an event to celebrate the start of the New York Cosmos 2015 season, in New York April 17, 2015.
Reuters/Lucas Jackson/Files
<span id="articleText"><span id="midArticle_start"/> Brazilian soccer great Pele will join his former club the New York Cosmos on a goodwill mission to Cuba that will include an exhibition match Tuesday between the Cosmos and the Cuban national team, Cuban officials said.
<span id="midArticle_0"/>"It is now confirmed: The king of soccer, Pele, is coming to Havana ... for the upcoming friendly match on June 2," the official newspaper Juventud Rebelde reported, citing Antonio Garces, vice president of the Cuban Football Association.
<span id="midArticle_1"/>The Cosmos, now in the second division of U.S. professional soccer, have scheduled the first match of an American professional sports team in Cuba since the December rapprochement between Cuba and the United States.
<span id="midArticle_2"/> <span class="first-article-divide"/>The Cosmos became a sensation in the 1970s when they signed Pele and other international stars to play in the North American Soccer League. The league folded in the 1980s and was re-established in late 2009 as the second tier of U.S. club soccer, below Major League Soccer (MLS).
<span id="midArticle_3"/>Today's Cosmos get their star power from former Real Madrid striker and Spain captain, Raul Gonzalez, 37.
<span id="midArticle_4"/> <span class="second-article-divide"/>Pele, 74, whose real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, won three World Cups with Brazil, and was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee.
<span id="midArticle_5"/> <span class="third-article-divide"/>
<span id="midArticle_6"/> (Reporting by Nelson Acosta; Editing by Daniel Trotta and Bernadette Baum)
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