Lakenheath Old Boys

We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!

Sunday, January 05, 2014

RIP: Eusebio (1942-2014)

Spare a thought today for the passing of one of the all-time footballing great, Benfica and Portugal striker Eusebio, who died today at the age of 71. As fortune would have it, Gooner and I were just talking over the holidays about who we would have in our pantheon and Gooner listed Eusebio as #4 after Maradona, Pele and Cruyff. I'd have him slightly further down my list, after Pele, Maradona, Cruyff, Beckenbauer and Zidane, but there is no denying that he was up there. The ultimate of greatness, to my mind, is that a player did it for club and country and the highest level - and Eusebio certainly did that, for Benfica in the European Cup and for Portugal at Euro '64 and most spectacularly as the top scorer at England '66. He'll be greatly missed as an ambassador for the game.

posted by The Blue Devil @ 4:34 PM 

2 Comments:

Blogger manunitedrules said...

A huge loss to the football world. He was a class act and one of the all time greats. I would have him in my top ten , but am not sure exactly where I would rank him. I always think of him playing two famous matches at Wembley : Against England in the 1966 World Cup semifinal and against Manchester United in the 1968 European Cup Final.

11:14 PM  
Blogger gooner71 said...

And he singlehandedly got Portugal through when the North Koreans unexpectedly went up 3-0 against them at Goodison Park in
'66. If you ever have a chance to watch "The Game Of Their Lives," not that horror show with the Blur guy, but a British documentary that searches for the remaining survivors of the NK '66 team, you should. And the Eusabio footage is fantastic because of the way they cut the film.

1:51 PM  

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