OBITUARIES / PASSINGS / Julio Mazzei

Julio Mazzei, 78, who helped persuade soccer great Pele to play in the United States and later coached the New York Cosmos, died Sunday at a clinic in Santos, Brazil, after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Pele, a longtime friend, has always said Mazzei, who worked in Pele’s sports marketing office in New York, was influential in his decision to join the Cosmos from 1975 to 1977.

A renowned physical trainer in his native Brazil, Mazzei was the Cosmos’ coach in 1979 and ’80 and again in 1982 and ‘83, leading the 1982 team that featured Giorgio Chinaglia to its fourth North American Soccer League title in six years. The league folded in 1984.

Mazzei was born in Guaicara, near the capital of Sao Paulo, in 1930. An injury ended his soccer career when he was 18, so he studied physical education, earning his bachelor’s degree from the University of Sao Paulo. He later took graduate courses at Michigan State University and wrote several books on physical fitness and soccer.