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For many, he is the best player Marine have ever had, but what some might not know about
are Peter Smith’s summers in America’s NASL where he ended up playing with George
Best for the LA Aztecs – and marking Brazilian legend, the late Pele!
Non-League is such a vast church it never ceases to surprise how deep the stories go.
When the iconic Pele passed away recently, friend of the paper Barry Lenton dropped over
an email to remind me Mariners legend Smith had gone up against the great forward.
What’s more, Pele remarked how well he played – despite New York Cosmos beating
Smith’s Aztecs 6-0.
A few days later I caught up with the very humble Smith to hear his remarkable football
story that began with Wrexham reserves and took him across the Atlantic.
It came from Marine manager Roly Howard, who had contacts in the States.
Smith first played six games for Philadelphia Atoms but without a work permit he had to
return home.
Fast-forward a year and some representatives from LA Aztecs came over to sign John
Marsh from Stoke and Chelsea’s Charlie Cooke to add to the squad that already had Best
committed.
“We played one night in March and the two guys were there – part owner John Chaffetz and
another guy," Smith, who scored 174 goals in his 957 appearances for Marine after being
converted from a forward into a centre back, tells me. "I sat down with them and they were
saying, ‘It’s going to be spectacular with Best’. Like a typical American trying to sell
something but would I be interested. I said, ‘Yes, I would’.
“I was working for BT at the time so I had to get special leave. He opened his briefcase, got
out a contract and I signed it. There was international clearance to sort and making sure I
would return back and stuff and that was that. At the end of the season, I packed my bags
and off I went.”
Flying all over the America as the season played out, they were soon at the Yankees Stadium
up against Pele’s Cosmos, who were also fielding a well-known debutant, Italy World Cup
striker Giorgio Chinaglia.
Smith was used to mixing it with the stars. He also played against Bobby Moore and Geoff
Hurst, as well as calling Best a team-mate.
Smith recalls: “He said, ‘My name is George Best, Peter nice to meet you’. I’m thinking,
‘Yeah, I know who you are!’ It was surreal. He was so normal, a smashing fella.”
And he’ll never forget going toe-to-toe with Pele, who scored twice in the win including a
trademark wonderstrike.
“We basically just stood in awe,” Smith says.
“The ball came to him on his chest. It didn’t touch the floor, he flicked it over a lad called
Jose Lopez’s head, and volleyed it with the opposite foot into the top corner. You think to
yourself, ‘That’s not bad’.”