When people think of Portuguese footballers, Cristiano Ronaldo is usually the first name that comes to mind. Second, if anyone, they would be Rui Costa, Luis Figo, Ricardo Carvalho era.
But among all these, there is one person whose name many have never heard Who knows that Portugal's highest achievement in the World Cup is up to the semi-final, but in whose era? Do we know that?
Eusebio da Silva Ferreira...
Many fans in the football world know him by many names Black Panther, Black Pearl, The King etc. He was born on 25 January 1942.
He spent a long time in his senior career at Benfica. In Benfica he scored 473 goals in 440 matches in league, European Cup in total. He also played in Mexican League, North American League, American Soccer League. In his club career, he scored 580 goals in 575 matches.
He played 64 matches for the national team and scored 41 goals.
Scored 9 World Cup goals for Portugal in the 1966 World Cup. Being the top scorer of the World Cup, he received the Golden Boot, received the FIFA Bronze Ball, and also made it to the FIFA All Star Team that year. The previous season in 1965, he won the Ballon d'Or with a maximum of 67 points. And in 1962 and 1966, he was the runner-up in the Ballon d'Or race. He is the first and so far the first player to win the Ballon d'Or for Benfica. A statue of him was erected in front of Benfica's stadium Estadio da Luz in his memory. He also won the first European Golden Shoe in 1968, which is now known as the European Golden Boot. Then in 1973 he got Golden Boot again.
He also holds another record as the second top scorer in the European Cup after Alfredo Di Stefano. It was called the European Cup before it was renamed the Champions League in 1992. He is the top scorer after Di Stefano with 42 goals. He was also the top scorer of the European Cup for three consecutive seasons from 1964-1968.
He is Portugal's third top scorer after Cristiano and Pauleta. People get lost in the flow of time. In this way, the Portuguese number nine has been lost in the flow of time.
Eusebio died on 5 January 2014.
