Himself
In the 1970s the North American Soccer League marked the first attempt to introduce soccer to American sports fans. While most teams had only limited success at best, one managed to break through to genuine mainstream popularity - the New York Cosmos. The brainchild of Steve Ross (Major executive at Warner Communications) and the Ertegun brothers (Founders of Atlantic Records), the Cosmos got off to a rocky start in 1971, but things changed in 1975 when the world's most celebrated soccer star, the Brazilian champion Pele, signed with the Cosmos for a five-million-dollar payday. With the arrival of Pele, the Cosmos became a hit and the players became the toast of the town, earning their own private table at Studio 54. A number of other international soccer stars were soon lured to the Cosmos, including Franz Beckenbauer, Rodney Marsh, and Carlos Alberto, but with the turn of the decade, the team began losing favor with fans and folded in 1985.
Baumann, german team captain
Em um campo alemão de prisioneiros de guerra, o major Karl von Steiner (Max Von Sydow), que já tinha pertencido à seleção alemã de futebol, tem a idéia de fazer um jogo entre uma seleção dos prisioneiros aliados, liderados pelo capitão John Colby (Michael Caine), um inglês que era um conhecido jogador de futebol. Colby também teria a tarefa de selecionar e treinar o time, para enfrentar o time alemão no Estádio Colombes, em Paris. Enquanto os nazistas, com exceção de Steiner, planejam fazer de tudo para vencer o jogo e assim usar ao máximo a propaganda de guerra nazista, os jogadores aliados planejam uma arriscada fuga durante a partida.
