Pelé, arguably the greatest soccer player in history, recently passed away. And it turns out that he had a four-decade-long real estate connection to the Hamptons.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé, was recruited to New York by the late businessman Steve Ross, who oversaw Time Warner at the time. Ross founded the soccer team known as the New York Cosmos in 1970. Five years later, he gave Pelé a contract worth about $4.5 mιllιon, which sharply raised the level of interest in soccer in the United States.
Ross, a multibillionaire soccer lover, was also a die-hard Hamptonite who, with his wife Courtney Sale Ross, owned the sprawling Cody House estate in the wealthy Georgica district. (David Geffen later purchased Cody House for a brief period of time.)
Pelé was undoubtedly entertained by Ross in East Hampton, and it’s possible that he even talked Pelé into buying a house there. And he did. On the northern shore of the island of East Hampton, in the Clearwater neighborhood of Springs, the three-time World Cup champion paid only $156,000 in 1979 for his riverside getaway.
For nearly 40 years, the soccer player and his two kids, who live largely in New York City, spent their summers at the one-acre property.
Fortunately, the land is FEMA classed X, which indicates it is unlikely to flood, and has deeded beach and marina rights. The view is maximized by the size of the windows throughout the house, and the pool also overlooks the water. There are master bedrooms upstairs and downstairs, along with four further bedrooms and a total of 7.5 bathrooms. The finished basement level has a spacious media/playroom with wet bar, an office, a ton of storage, and a sauna.
Sadly, everything good has to come to an end. Pelé sold the home in 2018 for $2.85 million while still residing in Brazil at the age of 77. But not everyone can say that the soccer GOAT once called their house home.
