The football fraternity mourns the death of legendary portuguese footballer Eusébio da Silva Ferreira today. He is considered as one of the greatest footballers of all time.
Eusébio was a Mozambican-born Portuguese football forward who, during his professional career, netted the ball 733 times in 745 matches. He helped the Portuguese national team reach third place at the 1966 World Cup, being the top goal scorer of the tournament with nine goals. He won the Ballon d’Or award in 1965 and was runner-up in 1962 and 1966. He played 15 of his 22 years career with Portuguese club Benfica and is the team’s all-time top scorer with 638 goals scored in 614 official games.
With the Portuguese club, he won eleven Primeira Liga titles, five Taça de Portugal titles, a European Cup (1961–62) and helped them reach three additional European Cup finals. He was the European Cup top scorer in 1965, 1966 and 1968. 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. He also played for the Portugal national team scoring 41 goals in 64 matches.
Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo has led tributes for the Portuguese football icon by tweeting “Always eternal #Eusebio, rest in peace” early today. Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho said: “I think he is immortal. We all know what he meant for football and especially for Portuguese football.” Luis Figo, former Portugal captain added: “The king! Great loss for all of us! The greatest!”
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