Sunday, January 05, 2014

RIP Eusebio

One of the greatest players of all time, Eusebio, has passed away. Although a Portuguese national, Eusebio was the first African player to make it to the world stage, being Mozambican when his country was a Portuguese colony.
He played in Benfica from 1960 to 1975 in what was perhaps the best Benfica side of all time. In that period the club from the Portuguese capital won 11 national titles, two European Champions titles and were runners-up in three additional European titles. Eusebio scored an impressive 317 goals in 301 matches for Benfica, where a statue of him is in front of Benfica's home stadium (seen below).
Eusebio also became the star of the 1966 World Cup, overshadowing even Pele. With nine goals he became the most scoring player of the tournament (and very memorable are his four goals against North Corea in the quarterfinals when his side was down 0-3) where Portugal became bronze-winners, the country's best World Cup result ever.
RIP.
Eusebio

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