tonight, Benfica plays José Mourinho's Inter Milan for the Eusébio Cup. it's a friendly, but it's also the first edition of an anual tournament to honour one of the greatest players of all time: Eusébio da Silva Ferreira. since i'd rather sit here and reminisce about football players form the 60's than study Industrial Economics, here's a small tribute to this Portugal and Benfica legend:
according to legend, Benfica's coach Bela Guttmann was getting a haircut in Lisbon, and sitting next to him was São Paulo's coach. he told him about a fantastic young player he saw while Sao Paulo was touring Mozambique, and soon Guttmann went there and signed the player. his transfer to Benfica is surrounded in controversy, as his club in Mozambique was a nursery club to Sporting Lisbon. Eusébio had to be hidden away in some fishing village in the Algarve until the transfer details were ironed out.
he was nicknamed "The Black Panther" or "The Black Pearl" and became known for his blistering pace, tremendous physical power, solid technique and his ability to deliver powerful and accurate shots regardless of angle, distance and pressure from defenders. he was able to create his own chances and spearheaded Benfica's devastating attack that helped make the club one of the dominant forces of European football in the 60's, reaching 5 Champions League finals between 1961 and 1968 and winning twice (61 and 62).
and that 1962 final in Amsterdam... fucking epic.. i'd give anything to live that night. Benfica were defending champions, but Real Madrid were the favourites. this was the seventh edition of the CL, and Real had won the first 5. their team boasted the likes of Gento, Alfredo Di Stefano and "the galloping major" Ferenc Puskas, arguably the greatest team to ever set foot on a pitch. each Real player's individual match bonus was bigger than Benfica's entire team bonus.
Real started in style, with Puskas scoring 2 goals before Benfica made it 2-2. Puskas scored a third before half-time, though, making in 3-2 and becoming the only man to score a hat-trick in the final and stil lose. in the second half, "The Black Panther", only 19 at the time, bared his claws for Europe for the first time, scoring the 4th and 5th goals as Benfica made and epic comeback to beat Real Madrid 5-3. he was carried out of the pitch on the fans' shoulders, holding his idol Di Stefano's shirt.
he's Benfica's all-time top scorer, with 317 goals in 301 matches, and second-best scorer in the National Team (64 matches/41 goals), although #1, Pauleta, has only 6 more goals in 22 additional matches.
top scorer in the 1966 world cup with 9 goals, he scored 4 goals in Portugal's 5-3 victory over North Korea (coming back from 3-0 down).
leaving the pitch in tears after England knocked out Portugal in the semi-final.
face to face: the black panther and the black widow, Lev Yashin
kicking so much as from such a young age, it wasn't long until the European giants tried to sign him. it took the government's influence, under claims that he was a national symbol and as such had to stay in Portugal, to stop a move to Inter Milan.
Individual honours:
European Footballer of the Year (65)
7 x Portuguese League Top Scorer (64 65 66 67 68 70 73)
European Golden Boot (68) with 42 goals
European Golden Boot (73) with 33 goals
IFFHS 6th European Player of the Century (99)
IFFHS 9th World Player of the Century (99)
he was immortalised in a statue that marks the main entrance to our stadium:
[img]http://bp0.blogger.com/_4nTdjjwwT3U/R6pRAPMsUyI/AAAAAAAABvI/VlG-1c-L8o8/s400/Estátua+Eusébio.jpg[/img]
awesome video of Eusébio in action:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k4p2q4ml6LbQXA8NGd
some goals are just normal, but others are fucking awesome. music is a bit cliché i guess but fits the video perfectly. please watch
LEGEND
. Klose was also quite good.
