Eusebio

At 71 years old, Eusebio has this physical status:

Eusébio da Silva Ferreira GCIH GCM (born players) Eusébio was responsible for Portugal's third appearance at the 1966 World Cup, with nine goals (including four in one match against North Korea) and the Bronze Ball award.

In 1965, he received the Ballon d'Or Award for European footballer of the year, and in 1962 and 1966, he was runner-up.

He played for Benfica for 15 years, but was mostly associated with the Portuguese club, and is the team's all-time top scorer with 473 goals in 440 competitive games.

He won eleven Primeira Liga titles, five Taça de Portugal titles, a European Cup (1961–62), as well as helping them reach three additional European Cup finals (1963, 1965, 1968).

He is the eighth-highest goalscorer in the European Cup's history and the second-highest in the pre-Champions League era with 48 goals, behind Alfredo Di Stéfano.

In 1964–65, 1965–66, and 1967–68, he was Europe Cup top scorer.

He has won the Bola de Prata (Primeira Liga best scorer award) a record seven times.

In 1968, he became the first person to win the European Golden Boot, a feat he resurrects in 1973. Eusébio's name appears in several lists and polls compiled by football analysts and followers often.

In a survey by the World Soccer Club, he was named the ninth-best footballer of the twentieth century in a survey conducted by the IFFHS and the tenth-best footballer of the twentieth century.

In his 2004 FIFA 100 list, Pelé named Eusébio as one of the top living footballers in the country.

In the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll's online poll, he came in seventh.

He was voted as the most outstanding player of Portugal by the Portuguese Football Federation in November 2003 to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee.

Eusébio has been described as "Africa's first great footballer" and "Africa's greatest-ever celebrity" from his time as a footballer from his inception to his death, he was one of his generation's most prominent celebrities.

In his honor, FIFA, UEFA, the Portuguese Football Federation, and Benfica have all been granted trophies.

António Simes, a former Benfica and Portugal teammate and mentor, acknowledges his influence on Benfica, adding that "With Eusébio, we may be European Champions, but without him, we may not win the game."

Eusébio's death was briefed by Alfredo Di Stéfano: "For me Eusébio will always be the best player of all time."

Early life

Eusébio was born in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo), Portuguese Mozambique, on January 25, 1942. His parents, Laurindo António da Silva Ferreira, a white railway worker from Malanje, Angola, and Elisa Anissabeni, a black Mozambican woman, were among his parents. He was Elisa's fourth child. He grew up in a very poor neighborhood and played barefoot football with his classmates on improvised pitches and used improvised footballs. Eusébio's father died of tetanus when Eusébio was eight years old, so Elisa was almost exclusively responsible for young Eusébio.

Personal life

Eusébio was a devout Roman Catholic who married Flora Claudina Burheim in 1965.

Source

Club career

Eusébio's first attempt at play for a local amateur team called Os Brasileiros (The Brazilians), in honor of the fact that he and his colleagues assembled the formidable Brazilian national team of the 1950s, they would play under the names of some of those legends. They were made of socks filled with newspapers that had been rolled into spheres. He tried to enlist with some friends from Grupo Desportivo de Marques, his favorite team and a Benfica feeder team, as well as the team where Mário Coluna had played before his transfer to Benfica, but was turned down without even being allowed a chance to prove his worth. He then tried his luck with Sporting Clube de Lourenço Marques, who accepted him. "When I was 15, Juventus, Italy's top goalkeeper, turned scout, wanted to recruit me because one of their scouts, who had been a well-known Italian goalkeeper, was spotted," he told them that it would be good to have a boy with a potential." Juventus made the suggestion, but my mother never wanted to hear anything from anyone."

Eusébio spent two seasons with their youth team, but he made only occasional appearances in the senior team. In his last season, he won the Campeonato Provincial de Moçambique and the Campeonato Distrital de Lourenço Marques.

Eusébio made his way to Lisbon in his late teens after joining Benfica as an 18-year-old boy from his hometown club Sporting de Lourenço Marques for 350,000 Portuguese escudos (equivalent to €136,000 in 2009). Benfica discovered Eusébio as a result of the efforts of Brazilian former player José Carlos Bauer, who saw him in Lourenço Marques in 1960. Eusébio ran 100 meters in less than 11 seconds. Although Eusébio preferred playing on the right side of the foot, he could also use the left side of the game. Eusébio will surprise opponents with his dribbling skills, which is apparently, a talent he preferred to keep private. Bauer suggested Eusébio first to his former club, So Paulo, but the Tricolor refused him.

Bauer had been requested by his former coach, Béla Guttmann, to keep an eye out for talented players on a ten-week tour in Africa, but when So Paulo could not afford the asking price for Eusébio, Bauer suggested that he be sent to Guttmann, who was coaching Benfica at the time. Guttman jumped right and signed the then-19-year-old for Benfica as a result.

Sporting Lourenço Marques, a Sporting CP affiliate, was involved in the change, and the two rivals challenged the transfer's legality. "I used to play in Sporting's feeder club in Mozambique," Eusébio said. Benfica wanted to pay me out of a job, but Sporting wanted to bring me [to Portugal] as a junior player for the first time without receiving no monetary compensation. Benfica took a nice shot. They went to speak with my mother, my brother, and the court agreed to pay €1,000 for three years. My brother and sister paid for the double, and the family paid the bill. They signed the deal with my mother, who received the money."

Eusébio was arrested in Lisbon, Algarve, by the 15th of December 1960, with Benfica concerned about a kidnapping operation carried out by Sporting rivals. Ruth Malosso was coded into his name during his exile. He stayed there for 12 days until the transfer upheaval calmed down. Although he was in a hotel room, he was warned of potential run-overs. Eusébio considered leaving Portugal, but his mother convinced him to stay.

Eusébio was registered in May and the first year of his career, but it was not until Sunday that they played against Atlético Clube de Portugal in a friendly game on May 23, 1961 that they met them. In a 4–2 win, he had a hat-trick. In the third leg of the 1960–61 Taça de Portugal, he made his official match against Vitória de Settbal on June 1, 1961. The game was controversially scheduled for the day after the European Cup finals against Barcelona, but the Portuguese Football Federation did not postpone it. When the first team returned from Bern, Benfica was playing with the reserve squad and lost 1–4. Eusébio's first five goals and missed a penalty was the first of only five he missed throughout his career, but it wasn't enough to win the round (4–5 on aggregate). Eusébio played for the first time in the Primeira Diviso on June 10, 1961, when he scored a goal against Belenenses on a 4–0 victory. On June 15, Benfica played the final of the invitational Tournoi de Paris against Pelé's Santos, and in the second half, with Benfica down 0–4, Béla Guttmann decided to bring Eusébio from the bench to replace Santana. Santos reached 0–5 after being introduced shortly after being in. Eusébio scored three goals and suffered a foul inside the penalty area, but penalty taker José Augusto refused to score. The game ended 6-3 for Santos, with Eusébio on the front page of France's revered sporting journal L'Équipe.

His following season was the one where he gained international recognition among football fans and critics alike. He scored 12 goals in 17 league matches, and even though the club finished third, they defeated Vitória de Setbal in the Taça de Portugal final, with Eusébio scoring two goals in the final. He won the European Cup in the same season, while still scoring two goals in the final against Real Madrid, which Benfica defeated 5-3. In his first complete season as a professional, he finished second in the 1962 Ballon d'Or, thanks to his fine form during the season. He was selected to represent the FIFA team in "Golden Anniversary" of The Football Association at Wembley Stadium in October 1963.

In 1963, 1965, and 1968, Benfica finished runners-up in the European Cup. With the score 1:1 on the 1968 defeat of Manchester United in the English league championships, he came close to winning the game but only to have his shot saved by Alex Stepney. Despite this, and the fact that the English team won 4–1 in extra time, he congratulated Stepney for his efforts throughout the game, refusing to applaud Stepney as he returned the ball back to play.

When playing for Benfica, he gained a number of individual accolades and awards. He was the European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d'Or) in 1965 and 1966, and he was Europe's top scorer twice, winning twice, 1962 and 1966. He scored seven times in the Portuguese First Division (1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969–72, 1971–72, 1965–68, 1969–69, 1970–68), 1966–69, 1970–67, 1967–68, and 1968–68).

Eusébio scored 473 goals in 440 official matches for Benfica, including 317 goals in 301 Primeira Liga matches, and 59 goals in 78 games of UEFA club competitions. With Benfica's jersey, he scored 727 goals in 715 games.

Eusébio played for two smaller Portuguese clubs, Beira-Mar and Unio de Tomar in the First Division in 1976-1977, 1977–78.

He also competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL), for three different clubs, including Boston Minutemen (1975), Toronto Metros-Croatia (1976), and the Las Vegas Quicksilvers (1977). In 1976, he had his most successful season in the NASL, with Toronto Metros-Croatia. In their 3–0 victory over the Soccer Bowl '76 to win the NASL crown, he scored the winning goal. In the Mexican league, he appeared in ten games for Monterrey in the same year.

He signed for the Las Vegas Quicksilvers in 1977, and he was ready to play (1977). The Black Panther had taken their toll on him by this time, and he was still receiving medical attention when he wasn't playing for the Quicksilvers. He only managed to score two goals during the season.

Eusébio wanted to play soccer despite the fact that his knees had robbed him of his ability to continue in the NASL. He played for the New Jersey Americans of the second-tier American Soccer League in 1978 (ASL). During the 1979–80 Major Indoor Soccer League season, he continued to play five games for the Buffalo Stallions. He retired in 1979 and joined the Portugal national football team's technical committee.

International career

Eusébio was the top scorer for his country, scoring 41 goals in 64 matches before Pauleta equalled and surpassed his record against Latvia on October 12, 2005. Eusébio was also the most captained Portuguese player from 1972-1984 until Tamagnini Nené's 64th cap against Yugoslavia on June 2nd in a friendly match, beating Eusébio's record against Romania in 1980's UEFA Euro 1984. On October 8, 1961, he made his Portugal national team's debut against Luxembourg, his country's first goal in the game.

Portugal was drawn in Group 3 after qualifying for the 1966 World Cup, alongside Bulgaria, Hungary, and Brazil's reigning champions. Eusébio scored a goal against Bulgaria after a poor showing against Hungary in the first game. With two victories, the team will face the Brazilians in their final group match. Portugal had no problem defeating them with two goals from Eusébio, including a famous volley from a tight angle after a corner kick, despite an injured Pelé. Brazil's early retirement was due to the result.

Portugal defeated North Korea, who had defeated and dismissed Italy in the group stage, and defeated North Korea in the quarter-finals. Eusébio scored four goals in the first fifteen minutes of the second half after trailing 0–3 in the 25th minute. After a fast run Eusébio had made from the Portuguese half to the opposition's penalty area, his fourth goal in the match came from a penalty. Portugal came back to win 5–3.

Portugal will face England in the semi-final match. The match will be hosted in a contest. The game was played at Goodison Park in Liverpool. The venue was nevertheless changed to Wembley due to the English government's intervention. This was rumored that it was caused by fear from English authorities of the Portuguese's performance and shame if England lost in their own country with a debuting squad. Portugal had to travel from Liverpool to London in last-minutes. Throughout the game, Eusébio was closely watched by England's defensive midfielder Nobby Stiles, but Portugal's only goal from the penalty spot in the 82nd minute was to be disallowed, ending England's record of seven consecutive clean sheets and 708 minutes without conceding a single goal. Eusébio continued to catch the ball after scoring a point and saluted Gordon Banks. Bobby Charlton's two previous goals were insufficient to nullify his two goals. António Simes had a last-minute opportunity only for Stiles to make it into a corner. Portugal lost 1–2 and Eusébio walked off the field in tears, being comforted by both his teammates and opponents. In Portugal, the game is called the Jogo das Lágrimas (Game of Tears).

Portugal faced the Soviet Union in the third place match. Eusébio scored the first goal (his ninth and final World Cup goal) from the penalty spot in the 12th minute after a handball inside the area. Despite Lev Yashin's prediction that the ball would land on the other team, he was powerless to save it. Eusébio also thanked his friend Yashin after scoring after he had scored. Portugal defeated the game 2–1 to achieve their highest-ever World Cup participation, as well as the best showing by a team on its debut since 1934 (subsequently equalled by Croatia in 1998).

Eusébio set a record for the most penalties scored in 1966, winning the Golden Boot (with nine goals) and winning the 1966 World Cup for the fourth time (shoot-out not included). Eusébio's four goals against North Korea in the quarter-finals also helped Portugal beat Portugal 2-1 for the first time in a match since Oleg Salenko scored five goals in 1994, a record he held until 1995. Eusébio's performance was so impressed by the English that his waxwork was immediately added to the Madame Tussauds in London. For 1966, he was named Year of the Year by the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year.

Source