Eusébio

Eusébio da Silva Ferreira is a Portuguese retired footballer, born in Mozambique in 1942. He grew up in poverty and being a child he tried to join Grupo Desportivo de Lourenço de Marques, Benfica’s feeder team, but was refused. Then he was accepted to Sporting Clube de Lourenço Marques and at the age of 18 he transferred to Benfica. Having moved to the team in 1960 his arrival was controversial, because Sporting Clube de Lourenço Marques is a feeder team of Sporting Clube de Portugal. Eusébio joined them in May 1961 and made his debut in a friendly against Atlético Clube de Portugal.

He played for Benfica until 1975 and throughout that period the team won numerous awards and Eusébio was awarded with many individual awards. Benfica won 11 Primeira Liga titles, 5 domestic cups, in 1961/62 they claimed European Cup victory. Eusébio was named European Footballer of the Year in 1995, Silver European Footballer of the Year 1962, 1966, he won European Golden Boot in 1968 and 1973, thrice he became European Cup top scorer (in 1965, 1966, 1968), in 1996 he was awarded with FIFA World Cup Golden Boot. During his long-term stay at Benfica he made 313 league appearances, he made 614 appearances in all competitions and scored 638 goals.

Having left Benfica Eusébio played for several North American teams Boston Minutemen, Monterrey, Toronto Metros-Croatia, Las Vegas Quicksilvers and New Jersey Americans. He also had short spells at Portuguese União de Tomar and Beira-Mar.

Between 1961 and 1973 Eusébio played for the Portuguese national team, he made 64 appearances and scored 41 goals. In 1966 he helped his side to finish third in FIFA World Cup.