Eusebio the Mozambique born Portuguese football legend dies at the age of 71 leaving to mourn him his wife, two daughters and many grand children.
As thousands of fans and soccer heroes pay tribute to him, we look back at a life of an unmatched talented footballer of all time.
Eusebio was born in Maputo, Mozambique during the Second World War when the country was still a Portuguese colony. At the age of 18, he was spotted by Benfica where his international football career started and ended. While playing for Benfica, Eusebio made history after history, breaking every known record to become one if world’s most feared forward players of all time.
His unequalled finishing and goal scoring ability is one of his accolades which stands him out from any other. In the 1960s, he was named in the world’s top scorers during his time at Benfica and Portuguese national team.
In 1966, he led Portugal to a third place at the World Cup where he made history and immortalised his name in Portugal football history. During a match with North Korean national team, Eusebio, charged back to score a hat trick to equal a three goal down his team had suffered before going on to score the fourth and the winning goal all within 30 mins. It was in the same 1966, World Cup, he wept openly after his team lost to the England team.
The legend played for the Portuguese national team 64 times and scored 41 goals. He also won the golden boot at the 1966 World Cup where he scored nine goals.
While playing for Benfica, Eusebio won 11Portuguese league titles, 5 Portuguese cups, and till date, was known as Benfica’s best player ever.
It was in 1975, that Eusebio left Benfica for North America after a 5 time knee operation. He later came back to become the assistant coach at Benfica and was pay rolled in the Portuguese national team as a paid soccer ambassador.