Eusébio

Eusébio da Silva Ferreira 25 January 1942 5 January 2014 was a Mozambicanborn Portuguese footballer who played as a striker He is considered one of the greatest footballers of all time and SL Benficas greatest ever player During his professional career he scored 733 goals in 745 matches 41 goals in 64 matches for Portugal Nicknamed the Black Panther the Black Pearl or o Rei the King he was famous for his speed technique athleticism and his ferocious rightfooted shot making him a prolific goalscorer Eusébio helped Portugal reach third place at the 1966 World Cup being the top goalscorer of the tournament with nine goals including four in one match against North Korea and received the Bronze Ball award He won the Ballon dOr award for European footballer of the year in 1965 and was runnerup in 1962 and 1966 He played for Benfica for 15 out of his 22 years as a footballer thus being mainly associated with the Portuguese club and is the teams alltime top scorer with 473 goals in 440 competitive matches There he won eleven Primeira Liga titles five Taça de Portugal titles a European Cup 196162 and helped them reach three additional European Cup finals 1963 1965 1968 He was the European Cup top scorer in 196465 196566 and 196768 He also won the Bola de Prata Primeira Liga top scorer award a record seven times He was the first ever player to win the European Golden Boot in 1968 a feat he replicated in 1973 Eusébios name often appears in best player of all time lists and polls by football critics and fans He was elected the ninthbest footballer of the 20th century in a poll by the IFFHS and the tenthbest footballer of the 20th century in a poll by the World Soccer magazine Pelé named Eusébio as one of the 125 best living footballers in his 2004 FIFA 100 list He was seventh in the online poll for UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll In November 2003 to celebrate UEFAs Jubilee he was selected as the Golden Player of Portugal by the Portuguese Football Federation as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years He has been called Africas first great footballer and Africas greatestever player From his retirement until his death Eusébio was an ambassador of football and was one of the most recognizable faces of his generation Homages by FIFA UEFA the Portuguese Football Federation and Benfica have been held in his honour Former Benfica and Portugal teammate and friend António Simões acknowledges his influence on Benfica and said With Eusébio maybe we could be European Champions without him maybe we could win the league Shortly after Eusébios death Alfredo Di Stéfano stated For me Eusébio will always be the best player of all time From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia