tens of thousands turned out in tribute Monday to Eusebio after the coffin of the Portuguese soccer great was put on public display and taken in a funeral cortege through the streets of Lisbon, AP reports.
People filed out of offices and cafes on a rainy afternoon and applauded as the hearse with a police motorcycle escort passed. Traffic was halted on the capital’s main roads, and the cortege stopped for a ceremony at city hall.
Earlier in the day, dozens of dignitaries and hundreds of fans, some weeping, filed past the coffin at the Lisbon stadium of Benfica, Eusebio’s longtime club. Some 10,000 fans at the Stadium of Light cheered and sang when the coffin was placed in the center of the field.
The government declared three days of national mourning after Eusebio’s death Sunday from heart failure at 71.
The funeral was attended by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho and many soccer players, including former world player of the year and retired Portugal captain Luis Figo.
Eusebio was an international star and national hero whose heyday was in the 1960s with Benfica and the Portuguese national team. He became one of the world’s top goal scorers and was widely regarded as one of the best players in the history of the game. He was affectionately known as the Black Panther for his physique and agility.
Eusebio was to be buried in a cemetery near Benfica’s stadium. Authorities considered moving him later to Lisbon’s National Pantheon, which contains the tombs of illustrious figures from Portuguese history.
Jose Mourinho has labelled Eusebio “one of the greatest in the history of football” following the legendary striker’s death Sunday due to a cardiac arrest.
Eusebio, nicknamed the “Black Panther” in his playing days, is one of Benfica’s all-time iconic players after he scored a staggering 319 goals in just 313 league appearances for the club from 1960 to 1975.
He boasted a similarly spectacular strike rate for his adopted country Portugal, scoring 41 times in 64 appearances, and had been the country’s top scorer for more than three decades until Cristiano Ronaldo broke his record in 2012.
Following Chelsea’s 2-0 FA Cup victory over Derby County, Mourinho praised his fellow Portuguese for being a huge influence on the sport during his playing days and afterwards according to Goal.com.
“He’s one of the greatest in the history of football, but for our country he’s much more than that,” he told BT Sport. “He was an important reference, in what he achieved in football, with his values, his principles and his feelings even after finishing his career.”
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