FIFA World Cup Legends: Player Profile-Eusebio
Portugal have always had a history of producing top quality wingers. But who was the first one? The one who inspired the rest of them? The one they all look to emulate and the one who is an inspiration for Portuguese kids who want to grow up and play football.
The one that is under discussion here is the one and only Eusebio. Born in the country which today is called Mozambique, Eusebio completely changed the way major foot-balling powers saw Portugal in terms of competition. Born in poverty, Eusebio found his solace in football. After moving to Lisbon at the age of eighteen, Eusebio joined Benifica, however there was controversy surrounding his contract signing.
Eusebio used to play for the Sporting Club of Lourenço Marques which was a subsidiary club of the Sporting Clube De Portugal, a rival club of Benifica from the same city of Lisbon. When Benifica recognized his talents through their scouts, they offered him a paid contract which was equivalent to today’s thousand Euros. As per this contract Eusebio had to at least play for Benifica for a further three years before moving onto some other club. Little did the administration at Benifica know that Eusebio would become a legend at the club during his stay and bring them unprecedented success.
Eusebio’s big moment for the Portuguese national team came when Portugal qualified for the 1966 FIFA World Cup, thanks to his brilliant displays in the qualifiers. It was the first time in their history that Portugal had managed to grab a spot in the competition through the qualifiers. Eusebio arrived in England in hot form and as the European player of the year 1965 for his performances.
Portugal were a part of a strong group with teams including Brazil, Hungary and Bulgaria. Portugal won all their three group games in fantastic fashion as they dispatched Brazil, Hungary and Bulgaria with ease. Eusebio gave top performances in all of these games and scored in all three matches. Portugal were surprised with how well prepared they were for the World Cup and especially with Eusebio’s speed and shooting capability.
After qualifying with ease for the quarter finals, Portugal faced the world cup surprise package of North Korea, who were as unknown a quantity back then as they are now. North Korea took an astonishing 3 goal lead against the Portuguese within 22 minutes of the match. What followed after that is still remembered in many foot-balling circles. Portuguese led by Eusebio played like a team possessed and came back into the game to win the match by five goals to three. In the goal fest Eusebio scored four goals for Portugal while José Augusto scored the fifth and the last goal. In doing so Portugal progressed to the semi finals of the tournament where they faced England. Eusebio’s capacity to change a game single handedly was well known by now and the English felt that if they could somehow mark Eusebio they could defeat Portugal.
The match itself was supposed to be played at Goodison Park in Liverpool, England. But English officials intervened and shifted the venue of the match to Wembley in London, England. Wembley was considered the home of English football and had a much larger seating capacity than Goodison Park. This meant that English had gained an unfair advantage over the Portuguese even before the match began.
During the match English did a superb defensive job on controlling Eusebio. In doing so they eventually scored a 2-1 win over the Portuguese who had a glimpse of a comeback at the end of the match when they were awarded a penalty which Eusebio duly converted but it all came to nothing at the end as Portugal had to be content with playing a third place play-off against the other losing semi finalists, Soviet Union.
Eusebio led his team against the Soviets as well and scored against their stern defense. In doing so he became one of the few people who have scored a total of 9 goals in a single world cup competition. Portugal finished third at the 1966 World Cup which was a remarkable achievement for a country who was playing for the first time in the competition and all of this was attributed to Eusebio and his foot-balling prowess. Eusebio also received the FIFA Golden Boot award for his goals scored in the FIFA World Cup of 1966.
Unfortunately Eusebio was unable to play in another World Cup despite featuring prominently in Portugal’s qualification campaigns for the 1970 FIFA World Cup and the 1974 FIFA World Cup as well. At the end of his career Eusebio shifted to the U.S.A where he played in the American Soccer League and won several accolades.
Eusebio is forever remembered as the “Black Panther” or sometimes referred to as “The Black Pearl”. No matter what nick name the people give him for the Portuguese he will always remain a legendary figure who played a key role in their first ever World Cup campaign.
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