Eusebio

Eusebio (Eusebio Ferreira da Silva), 1942–, generally considered Portugal's greatest soccer player, b. Mozambique. The "Black Panther" first played (1957–60) on the Sporting Lourenço Marques club in Mozambique, moving in 1961 to Portugal to join Lisbon Benfica, where he spent his best years. An extraordinarly quick and powerful midfielder, Eusebio was the Portuguese League's top scorer seven times (1964–68, 1970, 1973), was named European footballer of the year (1965), and led Benfica to a European Cup (1962) and 11 league championships (1961–65, 1967–74). He also played (1961–73) on Portugal's national team. Hobbled by a serious knee injury (1974), he ended his playing career (1975–77) in the North American Soccer League, later returning to Lisbon Benfica as its coach.