The entire football world was thrown into mourning with the news of the death of soccer great, Eusebio of a cardiac arrest in the early hours of Sunday morning.
The Mozambique-born forward who starred for Portugal in the 1966 World Cup in England enjoyed a stellar career with both club and country; with Portuguese clubside, Benfica where he won a raft of trophies which included the European Cup (now UEFA Champions League) in 1962, 11 Portuguese League titles, and 5 Portuguese Cup titles.
He also received a number of individual accolades and awards; 1965 European Footballer of the Year, 1968 Golden Boot Award Winner as Europe’s leading scorer, a feat he repeated five years later.
He was the Portuguese League’s top scorer seven times and with the Portuguese National team, the Selecao, where among a host of magic moments he was the top scorer at the 1966 World Cup in England with 9 goals which helped them to a third-place finish enjoying an international career where he earned 64 caps and was the country’s all-time leading scorer before a certain Cristiano Ronaldo became Portugal’s highest goalscorer.
He is survived by two children and 7 grand-children.