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The greatest soccer stars of the 20th century that are mentioned most frequently are Pelé, Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff. Eusebio’s name seems to be at the bottom. Meanwhile, Alfredo Di Stefano affirmed that the Portuguese is the best soccer player of all time.
Eusebio’s career lasted 22 years, in which he won the first “Golden Shoe”, three times he became the top scorer of KESH, the trophy of which he once won, and became the winner of the “Golden Ball” .
But all this, perhaps, would not have happened if Sporting had won the battle with Benfica for him. In fact, the Lions accuse their great rival of kidnapping Eusebius. While from Benfica he was brought to Portugal from Mozambique with a female name.
This is the incredible story of one of the best scorers the game has ever seen.
Eusebio was born in Mozambique, which until 1975 was a Portuguese colony in Southwest Africa. From the age of nine, the future scorer often skips school to chase the ball (instead of newspapers wrapped in stockings) on the streets of the capital, Lorenzo Markish (now Maputo).
In the 1950s, Portugal’s big three: Sporting, Benfica and Porto, had satellites in Mozambique. When Eusebio turned 15, he joined Sporting Lawrence Marquis, where he played almost free. “We kicked for a Coca-Cola and a sandwich,” the footballer later revealed.
In 1959, two events took place simultaneously, which would change the life of the future Ballon d’Or winner. José Carlos Bauer, considered one of the best Brazilian defenders in history and who, after the end of his career, worked as an explorer for Sao Paulo He went to Mozambique and was impressed by the qualities of the young striker. When he returned to Brazil, Bauer offered Eusebio to the club, but Sao Paulo refused to attract him.
Around the same time, Hungarian coach Bella Gutmann, who had previously won the Portuguese championship with Porto, made another team change and moved to Benfica, the 16th team in her career.
Three years earlier, the Hungarian, who led the great Honored with Ferenc Pusas, remained in Brazil when the Hungarian team toured South America and refused to return to their homeland due to the 1956 uprising. That is why Bella began to work. in Sao Paulo with Bauer, winning the state championship before moving to Portugal.
The two meet again on a sunny day at a barbershop in Lisbon. Bauer sits in a chair and, as he is cut, talks about the Mozambique striker, while Gutman listens with delight. “It is fantastic, sir, but we have no money in Sao Paulo,” José Carlos told his former coach. Bella is surprised by everything she hears, but is surprised to realize that the boy in question was 100 meters in 10.6 seconds (then the world record was 10.1 seconds).
The Benfica coach has already decided to make a serious revolution in the team and after his appointment he attracts 20 new players. But he wants to make Eusebio the pearl in his team and personally flies to Afika to attract him. Gutman immediately ordered the sports director to contact the Benfica man in Mozambique to start negotiations. But there is a fact that complicates the process: at that moment Eusebio kicked Sporting’s satellite, which is attentive to his talent.
Eusebio has been rejected by the Benfica satellite and his family does not accept an offer from Juventus.
When he was 14 years old, Eusebio had the opportunity to play for Grupo Desportivo Lorenzo Marquis, Benfica’s satellite, but, along with other talented children, he was rejected by the coach. Stubborn and stubborn, the young talent set out to play for Desportivo one day, but then his mother stepped in (Eusebio is the fourth child in a family to a white father: Laurindo, who works as a railroad man, and a black mother, Eliza).
“When my friends and I tested at the Desportivo academy, the coach kept sending us,” Eusebio recalled.
Then Hilario (a future defender of Sporting and the Portuguese team), who later played for Sporting Lawrence Marquis, said to his team: “Look at these guys, because they are good.” But I didn’t want to play there. None of my friends wanted either. It was an elite club, a police club where people did not like people of color. They were racists!
When we were rejected at Desportivo, we went to Sporting training and crushed the kids there. We scored maybe seven or eight goals for them and went back to Desportivo. So the Sporting people came to my mother and made me an offer. I told him that if my father were alive, he wouldn’t like it. “
Sporting’s management is insistent, and despite Eusebio’s constant reminder that Benfica was his father and brother’s team, his mother enrolled him in Sporting’s academy. In another interview, the attacker admitted that until recently he was against this decision.
“He didn’t understand anything about soccer! He told me it would only be a year to see if he was good or not. I had to play against Desportivo in the first game! I scored three goals, but I didn’t celebrate, I even cried.” The next day, the Sporting people came home to interview me, but my brother was wearing a Benfica shirt and a Desportivo flag hanging on the wall. They almost ran away … “
A year later, Italian Juventus showed interest in the young striker. One of Bianconeri’s scouts saw the striker and suggested that the club start following him before he became famous. Juventus made a specific offer, but according to Eusebio, his mother did not want to know about the possibility of her son being sent to Europe. Soon, however, you will have to accept it.
Sporting does not respect Eusebio’s request for a higher salary, while Benfica fulfills all its whims
Eusebio played for Sporting’s first team, Lawrence Markis, for two years. Immediately after that conversation at the hair salon, Benfica joined the offer for him. In response to Benfica’s offensive, Sporting president Brash Medeiros visits Eusebio’s family.
Negotiations for the contract are conducted by one of the attacker’s older brothers (there are a total of eight children in the family), who is an engineer by profession. The club offered a salary of 80 escudos (around 600 euros today), as all sports players received at the time. The brother replied that they had offered 150 Benfica shields, which led to a question from Medearos: “If everyone on the team gets 80, why should I get more?”
The answer, of course, is clear: At 18, Eusebio is better than absolutely everyone else on the team, and a few years later he will become the best player in the world. This concludes the negotiations with Sporting.
Benfica offers a salary of 125 escudos. His brother decides to verify how much the club wants Eusebio, so he asks for double the amount. The Portuguese grandmaster agrees and signs a contract with Eusebio’s mother for a period of three years, according to which her son will receive 250 escudos (almost 2,000 euros today) per month, to be paid in advance.
At just 18 years old, Eusebio became the highest-paid player in Portugal.
“Sporting tried to take me almost penniless, and Benfica agreed to pay,” Eusebio recalled. But they do not leave Sporting. In 1961, the Lions offered a space salary of 500 escudos a month, but the attacker replied that he would not agree to a thousand. Eusebio is offended by the behavior of the representatives of Sporting Lorenzo Marquis, declaring it racist.
“I never liked sports,” Eusebio said in an interview with O Mundo. “I had a feeling they didn’t want to buy me, but they had to. Their tone was arrogant. When they spoke to my brother, who was as white as my father, but when they spoke to my mother, who is black like me, her tone changed But I silenced them with my game. “
Benfica puts Eusebio in Portugal under a false name, Sporting accuses the opponent of kidnapping the player
Benfica’s plan to take Eusebio to the Old Continent has been carefully considered and secret enough not to lead to an open confrontation with Sporting. The player’s real name does not appear on any transport document, and meanwhile, Eusebio travels under the pseudonym Ruth Maloso. “I have no idea why they used a female name, but Sporting management really didn’t suspect a thing,” the forward recalled with a smile.
In the late 1960s, the rumor reached Benfica that Sporting was preparing to kidnap Eusebio. Therefore, the “eagles” accelerated their plan and on December 15 the player was taken to Portugal with a false name and was received by representatives of Benfica and a journalist from “A Bola”. And to make the conspiracy look more like a Hollywood production, records say Ruth Malosso “arrived” on the 17th.
Eusebio was immediately sent to a hotel in Lanus, a city 300 kilometers from Lisbon, so that no one in Sporting knew of his arrival in Portugal. The footballer spends 12 days alone in a hotel room without going anywhere, and at one point he even wants to return to Mozambique, but his mother intervenes again and convinces him to stay in Europe.
The striker then arrived in the Portuguese capital and began training with the Benfica first team, but the club managed to register him only six months later. Right now, there is a fierce verbal fight between the “eagles” and Sporting, who exchange angry messages. Sporting accuses Benfica of kidnapping his player, with whom they claim to have signed a contract. Eusebio himself, however, denies the existence of said document.
“How could I love Benfica if they tried to kidnap me? Also, my mother signed with the club because she was a minor. I have a copy of this document, the club has a copy and Benfica paid for my flight to Portugal. None” Neither my mother signed anything with Sporting, ever! I don’t think it was Benfica but Sporting who tried to kidnap me, “Eusebio said in an interview in 2004.
Whether this is true or not, there is no way to know. However, it is very possible that he or a family member has reached an agreement (orally or in writing) with Sporting. The “Lions” inflated the scandal as much as possible, writing to the Portuguese Football Union and making many furious statements.
Six months after Operation Ruth Malosso, Benfica paid sports compensation to Lorenzo Marquis, and Eusebio played for the Eagles for 15 years, revolutionizing Portuguese soccer and winning a total of 29 trophies with the Lisbon club. He left Benfica alone at the end of his career to go to the United States.
Eusebio made his debut for Benfica on May 23, 1961 and scored a hat-trick in a match against Atlético de Lisboa. “I owe everything I have accomplished to myself, my teammates and Benfica – admits in a recent interview for “A Bola” the former striker.
I was the best footballer in the world, the best striker, the most productive footballer in Europe. I won everything except the World Cup (in fact, Eusebio did not win a European Championship, which at the time did not have the prestige it has today).
I started my professional career at 19 years old and I loved my club. Sometimes I thought: “If I leave here, I will earn more, but is it worth it?” I could have gone to Inter after the 1966 World Cup. My wife and I even visited a house on Lake Como, but I stayed and never regretted my choice. This club brought me trophies, money and world fame. “
Eusebio passed away on January 5, 2014 at his home and will be remembered as one of the best at touching the leather ball on the green carpet.
