Hall of Fame vol. XVIII – Eusebio, the ‘Black Panther’ who challenged Pelé and took Portugal into football’s elite
A sprinter’s burst of pace, feline agility, an eye for goal and a devastating right foot: Eusebio enters the Hall of Fame.
"He arrived on the pitches running as only someone fleeing the police or the poverty biting at his heels can run."
World football's most authoritative and romantic writer, Eduardo Galeano, described Eusebio that way in his 'El fútbol a sol y sombra', known in Italy as 'Splendori e miserie del gioco del calcio'.
Growing up in Mafalala, the centre-forward played with a ball made of rags. He ran 100 metres in 11 seconds and paired a sprinter's acceleration with agile, refined dribbling and a powerful, accurate right foot that could beat any goalkeeper, even from distance. From the poverty of colonial Mozambique, he reached Europe's summit with Benfica and became Portugal's first superstar of worldwide stature, a champion capable of challenging Pelé for the crown as the best player of his era.
Opponents feared and respected him. He prowled the pitch in search of a goal like a big cat ready to tear its prey apart. English journalists gave him the nickname 'Black Panther'. In the years of Pelé, Di Stefano and Bobby Charlton, Portugal too had found a champion capable of taking them into the aristocracy of world football.
From Mafalala to Lisbon
Eusébio da Silva Ferreira was born on 25 January 1942 in Lourenço Marques, now Maputo, in Mozambique, then a Portuguese colony. He grew up in Mafalala, a poor neighbourhood, and lost his father as a child. He played football for hours with his friends and a ball made of rags, stopping only when daylight ran out.
At 12, his coach thought him too thin to send onto the pitch. "I cried because they wouldn't even give me a chance", he recalled to readers of 'UEFA.com' in 2008. Strength, alongside technique, would become one of the qualities defenders feared most.
His chance came at Sporting de Lourenço Marques, where Eusebio played between 1957 and 1960 and scored 77 goals in 42 matches. Their connection with Sporting CP seemed to point to his next move, but Benfica acted more decisively.
When the young footballer arrived in Lisbon in December 1960, aged just 18, he faced the cold and the dispute between the capital's two big clubs. Benfica had arranged the transfer in secret, using the code name Ruth Malosso. Sporting claimed rights to the player.
His mother Elisa then made the decisive choice, opting for the professional contract offered by Benfica rather than a trial with Sporting. "It all began with my mother, who was decisive in everything I did in football", the star later told 'Record'.
Eusebio spent 12 days in a hotel in Lagos, in the Algarve, waiting for things to calm down. "Many people said and wrote that I had been kidnapped, but it was simply a way for Benfica to keep me calm and away from the confusion", the centre-forward clarified to 'Record' much later.
Benfica manager Bela Guttmann had already realised what kind of player he had on his hands. "He's gold", he would repeat to his assistant Fernando Caiado when he watched him play. The Hungarian manager backed him and helped him find his place in the team. "He was the coach who had the greatest influence on me", he acknowledged to 'UEFA.com'. Eusebio was ready to make his mark in Europe.
The challenge to Pelé and the conquest of Europe with Benfica
On 23 May 1961, Eusebio scored a hat-trick against Atletico CP. On 1 June, he scored Benfica's only goal on his official debut, a 4-1 Portuguese Cup defeat to Vitória Setúbal. Benfica fielded the reserves the day after their European triumph over Barcelona, which had brought them their first European Cup.
Days later, at the Paris Tournament, the young centre-forward announced himself on the international stage. He came on in the final against Santos with Benfica 0-4 down. The Brazilians scored again before the boy from Mafalala completed a hat-trick. Santos won 6-3, but the 19-year-old had made observers split their attention between him and Pelé. Alongside Brazil's 'Black Pearl', football had found its 'Black Panther', 'A Pantera Negra' in Portuguese: the young African daring to share the spotlight with 'O Rei'.
His defining moment came on 2 May 1962 in Amsterdam. Real Madrid led 3-2 at half-time after a Puskas hat-trick. Coluna equalised, then Eusebio took over. In the 64th minute, he scored from the spot to put Benfica ahead. Five minutes later, his fierce free-kick beat Araquistáin again. Benfica won 5-3 to claim their second consecutive European Cup. Di Stefano and Puskas had to yield to a 20-year-old who settled his first European final with two goals.
"It was the moment that launched my career," he would admit to 'UEFA.com'. He had beaten his idols, but went looking for the shirt Di Stefano had promised him. When he got it, he showed Simões, as happy as a child receiving a gift from his hero. His team-mate reminded him he had just become a European champion. "For me, only Di Stefano's shirt mattered!" he would tell UEFA. As he explained to 'As' in 2008: "You always admire your father, not so much your brother." Di Stefano was the father, Pelé, his contemporary, the brother.
Eusebio and the Trap: a panther at Wembley
Benfica arrived at Wembley on 22 May 1963 chasing a third consecutive European Cup. They faced Nereo Rocco's Milan, but Eusebio took less than 20 minutes to make his mark.
"At the start of the match, Eusébio was being marked by Benítez, but he was driving him absolutely mad. He picked up the ball in the attacking third, surged forward and scored the goal that made it 1-0 with disarming ease," Giovanni Trapattoni recalled in his autobiography 'Non dire gatto', written with Bruno Longhi.
"It was Cesare Maldini, our captain, who changed the marking assignments. He came over and said to me: 'Trapo, you take Eusebio, otherwise he'll destroy us tonight.' I stuck to him and Benítez switched to Torres."
Trapattoni sacrificed every other ambition in that match. "I stayed so close to him that I could hear him breathing. I didn't let him turn. I knew that if he turned with the ball at his feet, it was over. He could shoot in a tiny patch of space with power and speed of execution unlike anything I had seen before. At that time, he and Pelé were undoubtedly the best footballers in the world," he later said on 'Il Processo del Lunedì' on 'Rai'.
Milan contained the Benfica star, and Altafini turned the final around with a brace. Forty-one years later, when Trapattoni became Benfica's manager, Eusebio was there to welcome him. Their old battle had given way to a long friendship.
The Ballon d’Or and the finals lost
Benfica reached the final again in 1965 and 1968, but Eusebio lost both finals: first to Inter, then to Manchester United.
On 27 May 1965, Eusebio couldn't beat Giuliano Sarti on a rain-heavy pitch at San Siro. Jair's goal gave Inter the victory. But the Ballon d'Or was his: he finished ahead of Giacinto Facchetti and Luis Suárez, becoming the first black footballer to receive it. He had already finished second in 1962 and would do so again in 1966, behind Bobby Charlton.
Wembley offered him another chance in 1968. Against Manchester United, with the score at 1-1 and just minutes remaining, Alex Stepney held the Portuguese forward's powerful shot. Eusebio showed great sportsmanship, applauding Stepney's save: "He made a great save, so I applauded him," he would tell 'FourFourTwo'. In extra time, the English side ran riot and won 4-1.
For 15 years, Eusebio wore the Benfica shirt. He scored 482 goals in 450 official matches, winning 11 league titles and five Portuguese Cups. He was the national league's top scorer seven times and the European Cup's top scorer three times: nine goals in 1964/65, seven in 1965/66 and six in 1967/68. His individual honours also included two European Golden Shoes, in 1968 and 1973, and two awards as Portuguese footballer of the year, in 1970 and 1973.
His favourite goal came on 9 December 1964, in the 5-0 win over Chaux-de-Fonds. After exchanging passes with Simões, the centre-forward from Mozambique feigned a shot: the defender shielded his face and Eusebio lifted the ball. He repeated the feint in front of a second defender, then volleyed it without the ball touching the ground. The goalkeeper could do nothing but congratulate him: "It was a work of art, a moment of inspiration," Eusebio would tell 'FourFourTwo'.
The World Cup of the ‘Black Panther’
In 1966, the champion from Mozambique helped Portugal reach their first World Cup. After beating Hungary and Bulgaria, the Portuguese also beat world champions Brazil 3-1, with Eusebio scoring twice. Pelé, hampered by injuries and the blows he had taken, left the tournament. Portugal began to believe they could win the World Cup.
Their quarter-final opponents were North Korea, who had eliminated Italy. On 23 July at Goodison Park, the Asian side led 3-0 after twenty-five minutes. Eusebio scored in the 27th minute and converted a penalty before half-time. He equalised in the 56th minute, then won another penalty with a run from the halfway line. He converted it in the 59th minute: in just over half an hour, he had scored four goals and turned the result around. José Augusto completed the 5-3 victory.
"For me, it was my special moment," he would later recall to FIFA. Portugal were in the semi-finals at their first attempt, and their centre-forward had already scored seven times.
At Wembley, a Bobby Charlton brace kept Portugal out of the final. Eusebio's penalty could not prevent England's 2-1 win. Eusebio left the pitch in tears: he had believed they would reach the final, and third place, still to be secured against the Soviet Union, could not yet console him.
He scored in that match too, beating Lev Jascin from the penalty spot, before embracing him. Portugal won 2-1, and the 'Black Panther' finished as top scorer with 9 goals in 6 matches. Eusebio ended his international career in 1973, with 41 goals in 64 appearances.
A near miss with Italy and the connection to Lisbon
Serie A clubs tried to prise him away from Benfica. Juventus pursued him first, then Angelo Moratti's Inter came very close to signing him. Eusebio and his wife Flora had already found a house near Lake Como, but after the 1966 World Cup, the closure of the borders to foreigners scuppered the move. North Korea had eliminated Italy, only to lose to Eusebio. Now they had indirectly blocked his path to Serie A.
"I could have bought half of Lisbon," the centre-forward joked in a 2008 interview with 'FourFourTwo', recalling how much he would have earned at Inter. Discussing Juventus's earlier interest, he said that Salazar's intervention had prevented him from leaving because the dictator considered him an asset of the state. Historian Ricardo Serrado disputed that account, attributing the failed move to Turin to the player's military obligations.
Eusebio remained at Benfica until 1975. His knees, by then worn out, hampered the latter part of his career, but he kept scoring. He crossed the Atlantic to play for the Boston Minutemen in the NASL, moved to Monterrey in Mexico, then went to Canada. In 1976, he won the North American title with Toronto Metros-Croatia, scoring in the final and finishing with 18 goals in 25 appearances. He continued to divide his time between Portugal and the United States, playing for Beira-Mar, Las Vegas Quicksilvers, União de Tomar and New Jersey Americans, before one final spell in indoor football with the Buffalo Stallions.
Back at Benfica, he joined the coaching staff before becoming an ambassador for the club that had become his home. Benfica honoured him during his lifetime: on 25 January 1992, his 50th birthday, Eusebio unveiled the statue of himself outside the old da Luz stadium. His wife and daughters stood beside him. Today, his bronze figure welcomes supporters outside the new stadium.
When he died on 5 January 2014, aged 71, Portugal declared three days of national mourning. His coffin crossed the pitch at da Luz, and on 3 July 2015 his remains were transferred to the National Pantheon.
"If I could choose, I would like to die there, in Benfica's stadium. It is my home." The centre-forward who had come from Mozambique explained back in 1997: "That is where I became a man. That is where I have lived since I was 18. Of course I cannot choose, but I would like to… And during an intense, hard-fought match ending in a Benfica victory, too."
