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EUSÉBIO

Eusébio da Silva Ferreira
PORTUGAL · POR · STRIKER · #13
25 JAN 1942 – 2014 · Benfica
The Black PantherO ReiThe Black Pearl
PORTUGAL · #13

🌎 WORLD CUP RECORD

0
TITLES
6
MATCHES
9
GOALS
YEARHOSTAPPSGOALSRESULT
1966England69 3RD PLACE
█ ATTRIBUTES
PACE 92
SHOOTING 95
PASSING 80
DRIBBLING 89
DEFENDING 38
PHYSICAL 84

⚡ DEFINING MOMENTS

▲ 1966 · Four goals from three down
In the quarter-final at Goodison Park, Portugal trailed unfancied North Korea 0–3 inside twenty-five minutes. Eusébio took the tie apart almost alone — two goals before half-time, two more from the spot and in open play after it — and a fifth from Augusto completed a 5–3 win that remains the great comeback of the tournament.
▲ 1966 · Golden Boot in a single summer
His only World Cup gave him nine goals in six matches: one against Bulgaria, two against the holders Brazil, four against North Korea, and penalties past England and the Soviet Union. It was enough for the Golden Boot and a place in the team of the tournament, and it made Portugal — World Cup debutants — the third-best side in England.
▲ 1966 · Tears at Wembley
The semi-final against the hosts was lost 2–1, and Eusébio's late penalty was a consolation rather than a reprieve. He left the pitch in tears, the image that fixed him in the tournament's memory; the third-place play-off, won against the Soviet Union, was the nearest his country would come to the final for decades.

📜 CAREER TIMELINE

1960
Arrives in Lisbon from Mozambique and signs for Benfica, where he will spend the heart of a fifteen-year career.
1962
Scores twice in Benfica's European Cup final win over Real Madrid in Amsterdam, announcing himself at twenty as a continental force.
1965
Named European Footballer of the Year, the first and for long the only Portuguese player to take the Ballon d'Or.
1966
His one and only World Cup: nine goals in six matches, the Golden Boot, and third place for a Portugal side making its debut.
1973
Wins the European Golden Boot as the continent's top league scorer, the second of his career, late in his Benfica years.
2014
Dies in Lisbon aged 71; Portugal observes national mourning and his statue stands outside Benfica's stadium.
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█ THE ALMANAC SPEAKS
PROF. INKSWORTH:

He had one World Cup and very nearly bent it to his will: nine goals in six matches, four of them in a quarter-final his side began three down, all of it for a Portugal team that had never been to the tournament before. The almanac files no title beside his name — England ended the run in the semi-final and he walked off in tears — but few players have ever dominated a single tournament so completely without winning it. Off the field he was, by every account, the gentlest of the giants the game has produced.

  • His nine goals in 1966 came in just six matches and won the Golden Boot by a three-goal margin.
  • Four of those goals arrived in one afternoon, turning a 0–3 deficit against North Korea into a 5–3 win.
  • He was the first Portuguese player to win the Ballon d'Or, taking it in 1965 a year before his World Cup summer.
Ready.
Zone: Historical