In fact, 35-year-old Messi will be following a well-trodden path of the greats of the 'Beautiful Game' by taking a lucrative pay day in football's backwaters. Pele - New York Cosmos (USA) 1975-77 It took the persuasive powers of US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to lure the man, who vies for the greatest ever with Messi and Diego Maradona, to the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 1975. "They want to make soccer big in the United States. That was the reason (I went).
