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Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, GCIH, GCM was a Mozambican-born Portuguese football forward. He is considered one of the greatest footballers of all time. During his professional career, he scored 733 goals in 745 matches.
Nicknamed the Black Panther, the Black Pearl, or o Rei, he was known for his speed, technique, athleticism and his ferocious, accurate right-footed shot, making him an outstandingly prolific goalscorer. He is considered S.L. Benfica's and the Portugal national team's most renowned player and one of the first world-class African strikers. Although born in Mozambique and having an Angolan father, Eusébio, like Matateu and Mário Coluna, among others before him, could only play for the Portuguese team, since both of the African countries were overseas territories and their inhabitants were considered Portuguese.
He helped Portugal reach third place at the 1966 World Cup, being the top goalscorer of the tournament with nine goals and received the Bronze Ball award. He won the Ballon d'Or award for European footballer of the year in 1965 and was runner-up in 1962 and 1966. He played for Benfica for 15 out of his 22 years as a footballer, thus being mainly associated with the Portuguese club, and is the team's all-time top scorer with 638 goals scored in 614 official games. There, he won eleven Primeira Liga titles, five Taça de Portugal titles, a European Cup and helped them reach three additional European Cup finals. He is the eighth-highest goalscorer in the history of the European Cup and the second-highest, behind Alfredo Di Stéfano, in the pre-Champions League era with 48 goals. He was the European Cup top scorer in 1964–65, 1965–66 and 1967–68. He also won the Bola de Prata a record seven times. He was the first ever player to win the European Golden Boot, in 1968, a feat he replicated in 1973.
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