Eusébio: from Mafalala to the National Pantheon, 1942–2014

Heavy rain fell on Lisbon for most of Monday 6 January 2014. At Benfica's Estádio da Luz the first tier of the stands was full, and about 10,000 people had come to see a coffin. It was carried once around the pitch, a lap of honour for the man the club called its King.3 sources3 sources

Eusébio da Silva Ferreira had died in the early hours of the day before, aged 71. He had been in hospital several times in the previous year with heart and respiratory problems. Reports gave heart failure or cardiorespiratory arrest as the cause.2 sources2 sources

From the stadium the cortege drove into the city centre to the Praça do Município, where the Câmara de Lisboa has its seat, and back to the seminary church near the Luz for the funeral mass. Crowds lined the streets in the rain. He was buried in the Lumiar cemetery at about seven in the evening.3 sources3 sources

Flags were already at half-mast. The government had decreed three days of national mourning, and the President, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, said that Portugal had lost “one of its most beloved sons”. In Brazil, Pelé wrote that he cried for the death of his brother.1 source1 source

Behind the grief was a life that began in a colonial suburb in Africa, at a time when the man Portugal now mourned as its own was classed by Portuguese law as a “native”.1 source1 source

Eusébio was born on 25 January 1942 in Lourenço Marques, the capital of Mozambique, then a Portuguese colony. His father, Laurindo António da Silva Ferreira, was an Angolan railway worker who died in his mid-thirties; the historian Nuno Domingos describes him as mixed race, the sports daily Record as white. His mother, Elisa Anissabeni, raised the children in a precarious house in Mafalala, one of the city's poorest suburbs.3 sources3 sources

The city was divided by race. Colonial propaganda showed its European centre as orderly, safe and white; the African suburbs around it held more than 100,000 people, many of them working as domestic servants, dockers, railwaymen or labourers. In his 1966 autobiography Eusébio described a trip downtown as a visit to a “city of pleasures and mysteries unknown”.1 source1 source

He learned the game in the street and at about 12 played for a neighbourhood side called Os Brasileiros. At 15 he twice tried out for Desportivo de Lourenço Marques, Benfica's local affiliate, and was turned away both times. Hilário, a friend of his older brothers, talked him into joining Sporting de Lourenço Marques, the affiliate of Lisbon's Sporting, instead.3 sources3 sources

Football in the city was segregated too. Until 1959 the clubs of the African Football Association, founded in 1924, could not enter the competitions of the Lourenço Marques Football Association, which grouped the settlers' clubs. Domingos argues that talent and his new status as an assimilado carried him across that barrier. RSSSF counts 39 goals in 25 official matches for Sporting de Lourenço Marques in 1960; Benfica and RTP give 77 goals in 42 games over his years there.4 sources4 sources

By 1960 both big Lisbon clubs wanted him. Sporting, whose Lourenço Marques affiliate held his registration, proposed a trial period in Lisbon. Eusébio's mother wanted money, a signed contract and a clear plan for his arrival. Benfica went to her directly and offered 250,000 escudos, a very large sum for the family. She accepted.3 sources3 sources

He landed at Portela airport on the night of 15 December 1960. Sporting protested, and in early 1961 the state sports directorate ruled in its favour before the Portuguese Football Federation sided with Benfica. Benfica's coach, the Hungarian Béla Guttmann, praised him after his first training sessions.1 source1 source

While the lawyers argued, Benfica kept him out of sight. On 8 April 1961 a club director, Domingos Claudino, took him to Lagos in the Algarve, where he stayed twelve days at the Hotel da Meia Praia under the code name “Ruth Malosso” and passed his fourth-grade school exam. The ruling went Benfica's way, but only if it paid Sporting de Lourenço Marques 400,000 escudos. The money was found in the early hours of 13 May 1961, when a well-known Benfica supporter, Jaime Catarino Duarte, put it up.2 sources2 sources

The delay cost him a medal. Benfica won its first European Cup without him, beating Barcelona 3-2 in Bern on 31 May 1961. His first official match was a Taça de Portugal tie against Vitória de Setúbal, played by a reserve side and lost 4-1; he scored. On 15 June 1961, in the final of a tournament in Paris, he came on at half-time against Pelé's Santos, who led 4-0 and soon made it 5-0. He then scored three times in 15 minutes. Santos still won 6-3.2 sources2 sources

Within a year he was in a European Cup final. On 2 May 1962 Benfica, the holders, met Real Madrid at the Olympisch Stadion in Amsterdam in front of 61,257 people. Real's forwards included Alfredo Di Stéfano, Eusébio's idol, and the Hungarian Ferenc Puskás.2 sources2 sources

Puskás scored twice in the first 23 minutes. José Águas and Domiciano Cavém brought Benfica level, and Puskás completed a hat-trick before half-time to make it 3-2 to Real. Mário Coluna equalised six minutes into the second half.1 source1 source

Then the 20-year-old took over. In the 63rd minute Eusébio scored from a penalty, and five minutes later he struck again to make it 5-3. Benfica had won the European Cup for the second year running. After the final whistle he went looking for Di Stéfano and came away with his shirt.2 sources2 sources

It was the only European Cup he won. Benfica reached three more finals with him and lost them all: 2-1 to AC Milan in 1963, when he scored first, 1-0 to Inter at San Siro in 1965, and 4-1 after extra time to Manchester United at Wembley in 1968.3 sources3 sources

Through the 1960s Eusébio was the most reliable scorer in Portugal. He was the first division's top scorer seven times, a record, and in 1967–68 he scored 42 league goals in 26 rounds. When the Golden Boot for Europe's leading league scorer was created that season, he was its first winner; he won it again in 1973 with 40 goals.3 sources3 sources

France Football's Ballon d'Or, then voted by 21 judges from 21 European countries, went to him for 1965. He took 67 points to 59 for Inter's Giacinto Facchetti and 45 for Luis Suárez. A year later he missed a second award by a single point, 80 to Bobby Charlton's 81.2 sources2 sources

Counting his goals is harder than it sounds. For Benfica, Domingos gives 473 goals in 440 matches and RSSSF 482 goals in 449 official matches. The club's own figure, 638 goals in 614 games, counts far more matches than either. RSSSF's two tables put his first-division total at 319 or 320 goals in 313 matches. On the titles, Benfica's own tally is ten league championships and five Portuguese Cups; RTP, Domingos and many obituaries say eleven league titles.5 sources5 sources

At the 1966 World Cup in England, Portugal won all three group games, against Hungary, Bulgaria and Brazil, whom they beat 3-1 at Goodison Park in Liverpool with two goals from Eusébio.2 sources2 sources

The quarter-final, on 23 July at Goodison Park, was against North Korea, who had knocked out Italy. Park Seung-zin scored after less than a minute, and by the 25th minute Portugal were 3-0 down. Eusébio scored in the 27th minute, from a penalty just before half-time, and twice more, in the 56th and 59th minutes, the second of those also a penalty. José Augusto headed the fifth.4 sources4 sources

England beat Portugal 2-1 in the semi-final at Wembley, both goals by Bobby Charlton, and Eusébio left the pitch in tears. Portugal beat the Soviet Union for third place, the best result in the team's history at the time. In December 1966 the players were received by Salazar, and Eusébio was given the silver medal of the Order of Prince Henry.4 sources4 sources

The best clubs in Europe tried to buy him. Record lists approaches from Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Napoli and Vasco da Gama; the two serious bids came from Italy. Juventus pushed first, and Record says the offer divided the club. In Eusébio's later telling, Salazar settled the matter himself.1 source1 source

Accounts disagree on when this happened. The Associated Press put it in 1964, Record's own profile in 1965, and Domingos at a reception for the World Cup team in December 1966. Then Inter, whose president was Angelo Moratti, made its move, and Eusébio and his wife Flora, whom he had married in October 1965, went as far as choosing a house near Lake Como. Record says that deal died when the Italian federation, after Italy's defeat by North Korea at the 1966 World Cup, barred its clubs from signing foreign players.4 sources4 sources

The regime certainly used him. Portugal was fighting independence wars in Angola, Guinea and Mozambique, and defended its empire abroad as a socially and racially harmonious Lusophone community. A black star from Mozambique wearing the national shirt fitted that story. His call-up for military service in 1963 got wide coverage, though fighting in Mozambique began only in 1964 and he never went near a war zone; he served with an anti-aircraft regiment in Queluz.3 sources3 sources

Eusébio resented suggestions that he had been a kind of “godson” to Salazar, though Domingos notes that in interviews he recalled addressing the dictator as “godfather”. He told Record: “Only later did I realise how far I was used by the regime of that time” (translated from Portuguese).2 sources2 sources

His knees were the price of all this. The first operation came in December 1961, before he turned 20, and a second on the same left knee a year later. By Record's count he had seven operations, six of them on the left knee, which defenders kicked and doctors treated with repeated injections; RTP's tally has six on the right knee and one on the left. Recoveries were cut short so he could play, sometimes for lucrative end-of-season tours.3 sources3 sources

He played his last match for Portugal, as captain, against Bulgaria at the Luz on 13 October 1973: 64 caps and 41 goals. In 1975, after 15 seasons, he left Benfica for North America.3 sources3 sources

In Toronto, where he scored 18 goals in 25 games, he won the 1976 Soccer Bowl, the final of the North American Soccer League. He later worked for Benfica as an assistant coach and with youth teams, and became an ambassador for the Portuguese Football Federation.4 sources4 sources

In 1998 a FIFA panel named him one of the ten best players of all time. “Look, there are only two black people on the list: me and Pele,” he said. “I regard that as a great responsibility because I am representing Africa and Portugal, my second homeland.”1 source1 source

In his last months his knees were so bad that he sometimes used a wheelchair at public events.1 source1 source

His body was taken to the Luz on the Sunday he died. Fans left flowers, scarves and hand-made posters at his bronze statue outside the stadium, unveiled on his fiftieth birthday, 25 January 1992, and moved near Gate 18 when the new Luz opened in 2003. One banner read: “I haven't come to say goodbye, but to say thank you.”2 sources2 sources

Talk of the National Pantheon began at once. The Pantheon, in the church of Santa Engrácia in eastern Lisbon, holds the tombs of presidents and writers, the general Humberto Delgado and, since 2001, the fado singer Amália Rodrigues. A year after his death, on 20 February 2015, the Assembleia da República voted unanimously to grant him its honours.4 sources4 sources

On 3 July 2015 the coffin left the Lumiar cemetery at 15:15 for a private mass at the Seminário da Luz. A horse-drawn carriage, escorted by 54 mounted soldiers and 22 police motorcycles, carried it past the stadium, along the avenue now named after him, to the Football Federation and to parliament, and on to Santa Engrácia, where it was due at seven.3 sources3 sources

At Santa Engrácia António Simões gave the eulogy, and the President of the Assembleia, Assunção Esteves, and Cavaco Silva spoke. The published programme also had Dulce Pontes singing the national anthem, and the two presidents and the Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, signing the record of burial. Eusébio was the first sportsman and the first black person to enter the Pantheon. He lies in its second tomb room, with Aquilino Ribeiro, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen and Humberto Delgado.4 sources4 sources

The tributes of 2014 and 2015 were close to unanimous, and they told one story. Politicians from the Communist Party to the right-wing CDS praised the same things, his humility and his simplicity. The draft resolution, signed by every party in parliament, called him a popular hero who had made the Portuguese proud.2 sources2 sources

Domingos argues that this portrait has colonial roots. Praise for the simple, humble African echoed the “good boy” that Lourenço Marques employers demanded of black workers, and the official biography, little changed since his 1966 autobiography, left out the poverty and racism of the suburb he came from. Team-mates remembered someone else: a ruthless forward who knew his worth and enjoyed a party. Nobody from Mozambique was invited to speak at the Pantheon.1 source1 source

Either way, his story belongs to the end of the empire. His years as a star coincided with the colonial wars in Africa and the last decade of the Estado Novo, which fell in 1974. His tomb in Santa Engrácia is a national honour for a man who was legally a native of a colony until he was 17.2 sources2 sources