Until Cristiano Ronaldo came along, no Portuguese footballer had a bigger impact on the English game than Eusebio, who died of cardio-pulmonary arrest yesterday morning.

Eusebio

Had fortune smiled rather more favourably on one of the finest strikers of all time, Portugal may have been the country that now looks back on those grainy images of 1966 as their greatest day. England may have had to wait another nine years to crown their first European Cup winners.

Instead, in this country, Eusebio will chiefly be remembered for two things — being the star of the team England defeated at Wembley to reach the World Cup final, and two years later, a remarkable act of sportsmanship.

When Man United ’keeper Alex Stepney kept out a Eusebio shot in the 1968 European Cup final en route to Matt Busby’s men beating Benfica, the striker’s reaction was to applaud the United man’s efforts.

Yet those two days — beaten and broken — do scant justice to one of the greatest players of all time, voted 10th in the list of 20th century stars by the influential World Soccer magazine.

Humble beginning
Born in Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, to a poor family, Eusebio’s football skills allowed him to move to Lisbon in his late teens.