One of football's all time greats, Eusebio, has died after heart problems, according to his old club Benfica.
Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, born in Mozambique in 1942, was 71 when he died. He is considered one of the greats of the game, breaking scoring records and amassing a vast wealth of accolades while also being the first player from Africa to make a major impression on football.
In 1960, aged 18, Eusebio left Mozambique, then a Portuguese colony, and moved to Portugal to play for Benfica; a move which led to a bitter dispute between his new employers and their bitter rivals, Sporting. Eusebio had played for a Sporting feeder team in Mozambique and his signing for Benfica enraged Sporting to the point that Benfica chose to send their new young star away from Lisbon, to the Algarve, for a period while tensions cooled.
In just his second game for the Benfica – the final of a friendly tournament in Paris – Eusebio scored a hat-trick against Brazilian side Santos and their own star, Pele.
Dribbling, acceleration (he could run the 100m in 11 seconds) and exceptional finishing characterised his game. His promising start to life in Europe was fulfilled and he would go on cement his place in the pantheon of greats, not only at Benfica, but in Portugal and in the annals of football history. Domestically he was dominant, and near unstoppable, scoring 320 goals in just 312 league appearances for Benfica. He was the league’s top scorer seven times, including a run of five consecutive Golden Boot awards between 1964 and 1968. Internationally he scored 41 goals in 64 games, a record only surpassed in 2005 by Pauleta, and a tally which took Cristiano Ronaldo 104 games to better.
In 1962, at just 20 years old, Eusebio led Benfica to European Cup glory, scoring twice in a 5-3 victory over the great Real Madrid side of Alfredo Di Stefano.
In 1965 he was named European Footballer of the Year, although the true peak of his career would come 4 years later, in England at the 1966 World Cup. He scored nine goals at the tournament, including 4 in the quarter final against North Korea. Although the opposition were not the most celebrated of sides at the tournament the Portuguese side was down 3-0 within 25 minutes, until a Eusebio led comeback resulted in a 5-3 win. Eusebio scored again in the semi-final but Portugal went out, losing 2-1 to eventual winners England.
Despite his startling strike rate with the national side the 1966 World Cup was the only time Eusebio - playing in a Portugal team in which he was the one true star - would display his talents on the biggest stage in football.
Fifteen years with Benfica brought eleven league titles and six Portuguese cups before knee problems forced him away from the game’s top level. In 1975 he made the journey to the emerging world of the North American Soccer League.
Over the next 4 years he would play for 7 clubs, with his best spell coming in 1976 for Toronto Metros-Croatia, where he scored 18 goals in 25 games.
In the summer of 2009 Eusebio was invited, by his friend Alfredo Di Stefano, to the unveiling of Cristiano Ronaldo as Real Madrid’s world record signing, at the Santiago Bernabeu. Ronaldo had been bought for €80m and came to the Spanish capital as the free scoring, seemingly unstoppable, European Cup winning star of Portuguese football. His arrival was greeted with hysteria. Di Stefano said to his close friend, Eusebio, “That would have been you”.
