Gordon Bradley went from being a coalminer and lower-league football player with Carlisle United to a pioneering career as one of the most successful coaches in the United States, where he was often described as “Mr Soccer”. He was the first person to be hired by the emerging New York Cosmos, as both player and coach, when the team consisted of a general manager (fellow-Englishman Clive Toye), a secretary, a single phone, no players, no ground and not yet even a name in January 1971.

Over the next six years, he played a pivotal role in what has so far been the zenith of American soccer, the glamour and success of the Cosmos with stars such as the Brazilian legend Pelé, whom Bradley signed in 1975, and German hero “Kaiser” Franz Beckenbauer drawing capacity crowds of more than 75,000 to the Giants’ Stadium. Later, as coach of the rival Washington Diplomats, he would lure Holland’s most-famous player, Johan Cruyff, to his team.

Bradley also had a spell of six games as coach of the US national side in 1973, picking himself once as a player in a friendly against Israel even though he was not yet a US citizen. Defeat in all six games cost him his job.

Gordon Bradley was born in Easington, Co Durham, in 1933. When he started working in the mines scouts from Sunderland AFC spotted him playing for a colliery team and signed him as a speedy forward when he was still 16. (After a shattered knee cap in training threatened his career, he was released without playing a first team match).

When his knee recovered, he transformed himself into a rugged defender, playing for Blackhall CW (Colliery Welfare) in the Wearside league, then for Football League side Bradford Park Avenue and ultimately Carlisle United where he played 130 games from 1957-60. In 1963 he and his wife, Vera, emigrated to Canada, where he played for Toronto Roma, then Toronto City before moving south to play first for the New York Generals and later the Baltimore Bays.

When Toye was given the task with putting together a new team for New York in 1971, he called in Bradley. “We didn’t have a name, a stadium or a player and had a league game at St Louis in three months,” Toye recalled. “Gordon and I scouted everything that moved locally, called our chosen flock to a hotel at JFK airport, signed them by dinner time, went to St Louis a few weeks later and won 2-1.”

The following year Bradley led the Cosmos to the North American Soccer League (NASL) championship title. He retired from playing in 1975 but remained as coach.

But it was the Cosmos’ signing of Pelé in 1975 that was not only the highlight of Bradley’s career but also a seminal moment in US sports history.

After the Cosmos, Bradley spent three seasons with the Washington Diplomats, where he signed Cruyff. From 1985 until he retired in 2000, he coached the Patriots, the male soccer team of George Mason University, Washington, becoming the most successful coach in their history.

He is survived by his wife and sons Paul and Douglas.

Gordon Bradley, pioneer of US soccer, was born on November 23, 1933. He died on April 29, 2008, aged 74