Perhaps a story that was circulated helps explain his decision. Pele, an avid fisherman, one day while on tour in New York City with his hometown Santos team, entered a sporting goods store and selected a new fishing rod. The salesclerk simply asked, “Sir, will that be cash or credit?” Prior to his later signing with the New York Cosmos, or in any soccer-mad country in the world, Pele would never have been able to make the transaction. But in metro New York at the time, he was still anonymous.