Pele and Eric Cantona are visiting Singapore to promote the rebirth of their New York Cosmos.

Pele, the team's honorary president and Cantona, its director of soccer, went to the Jalan Besar stadium to meet players from Young Lions, an under-23 team playing in Singapore's S-League.

New York Cosmos players included Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto, before the North American League (NASL) ended in 1984.

Pele now hopes with the rebirth of the team to help in the development of young players.

"Since I was invited to be part of this team I was very happy thanks God because I try to give back to the people, to the youngsters, everything I got from God. Then when I was invited to be part of this team I was very glad because everybody knows I start with New York Cosmos when New York Cosmos was a college team, we had very few professionals there and now to be here is to continue my mission," he told a news conference.

For Cantona, who is now also an actor back home in France, there is no problem juggling activities.

"I agree with them to spend eight months in New York because of the championship is from April to end of October, so I will be there for pre-season too, so I'll be there for eight months and I reserve four months to spend in France to keep acting because I really enjoy it. It took time for me to have enough experience to enjoy it and to make people accept that we can do something else in life," said Cantona.