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Eusebio
Full Name: Eusebio da Silva Ferreira
Birth Date: 25/01/1942
Birth Place: Lourenco Marques (now Maputo)
Birth Nation: Mozambique
Nationality: Portugese
Position: Forward
Clubs played for: 1958-1961 Sporting Club of Lourenco Marques (Mozambique) 1961-1975 Benfica
Boston Minutemen
Toronto Metros-Crotia
Las Vegas Quicksilver
Club Honours: (with Benfica) 11 Portugese League Championships (1961, 1963-5, 1967-9, 1971-4)
5 Portugese Cups (1962, 1964, 1969, 1970, 1972)
1 European Cup (1962)
(with CF Monterrey) 1 Mexican Championship
(with Toronto-Metros) 1 NASL Title
Individual honours: 6 times Portugese league top scorer
2 European Golden Boots (1968 and 1973)
European Player of the Year (1965)
World Cup top scorer (1966)
Nickname: Black Pearl or Black Panther
International Caps: 64
International Goals: 41
Benfica Appearances: 715
Benfica Goals: 727
Eusebio was taken to Europe in 1961 by Benfica's coach Bela Guttmann who flew down to Africa personally to check Eusebio out after being tipped by Sao Paulo's coach. Legend has it the tip off happened while the two coaches were in a Lisbon hairdresser's.
Benfica paid £7500 to buy Eusebio, causing a furore at the time as Sporting Club of Lourenco Marques were a feeder club for Sporting Club of Portugal who were less than impressed.
Eusebio and Benfica went on to dominate Portugese football for the next 15 years, with Eusebio establishing himself as Portugal's greatest ever player.
Eusebio also debuted for Portugal in 1961, in a 4-2 defeat versus Luxembourg.
1962 saw Eusebio and Benfica to become the first team to beat Real Madrid in the European Cup final, with a 5-3 win, two of the goals scored by Eusebio.
Portugal qualified for the World Cup for the first time in their history in 1966. Eusebio scored 9 goals, including 4 against north Korea as Portugal came from 3 down to win 5-3.
England put Portugal out at the semi-final stage but they won the Bronze medal, beating the Soviet Union.
Eusebio so impressed in the tournament that Madame Tussaud's immediately added him to their waxworks museum.
In 1976/77 and 1977/78, Eusebio played for two minor Portuguese teams, SC Beira-Mar, in I Division, and Unieo de Tomar, in the II Division. He scored a total of 733 goals in the Portuguese League.
He also played in the North American Soccer League, for three different teams, from 1975 to 1977: Boston Minutemen (1975), Toronto Metros-Croatia (1976) and Las Vegas Quicksilver (1977). His most successful season in the NASL was in 1976 with the Toronto Metros. He scored in their 3-0 victory at the 76 Soccer Bowl to win the NASL title.
1976 was a busy year for Eusebio, he also played ten games for CF Monterrey in the Mexican league.
The following season (1977) he signed for the Las Vegas Quicksilvers. This was to be the end of his glorious career as Eusebio's knees were no longer up to playing football.