Before Ronaldo, there was ‘Black Panther’ Eusébio: The man who put Portugal on the football map

When Cristiano Ronaldo surpassed Portugal's World Cup scoring record at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, he broke a mark that had belonged to one of football's most revered figures for nearly 60 years: Eusébio.

To understand the significance of Ronaldo's achievement, one must first understand the legacy of Eusébio, the player many still regard as the greatest footballer Portugal has ever produced.

Born on January 25, 1942, in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) in Mozambique, then a Portuguese colony, Eusébio rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most feared strikers in world football. Blessed with explosive pace, remarkable athleticism and a thunderous right foot, he was capable of scoring from almost any position on the pitch.

His rise coincided with the golden era of Portuguese club football. After joining Benfica in 1960, Eusébio quickly became the team's talisman. He helped the Lisbon club dominate domestically and compete with Europe's elite, winning 11 Portuguese league titles and the 1961-62 European Cup. By the time he retired, he had scored an astonishing 473 goals in 440 competitive matches for Benfica.

The striker's greatest international moment came at the 1966 FIFA World Cup.

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Portugal arrived in England as outsiders but left as one of the tournament's biggest stories. Eusébio scored nine goals, winning the Golden Boot and leading Portugal to a third-place finish — still one of the nation's best World Cup performances.

One match in particular cemented his legend. In the quarter-final against North Korea, Portugal fell 3-0 behind within the opening 25 minutes. With his team on the brink of elimination, Eusébio produced one of the greatest individual displays in World Cup history, scoring four goals as Portugal stormed back to win 5-3.

The image of a tearful Eusébio after Portugal's semi-final defeat to England became one of the defining photographs of the tournament.

For decades afterwards, his nine World Cup goals stood as Portugal's benchmark. Despite the emergence of world-class players such as Luís Figo, Rui Costa and Pauleta, none managed to surpass the record.

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Beyond the World Cup, Eusébio's influence stretched across the global game. He won the Ballon d'Or in 1965, finished runner-up twice and became the first player to win the European Golden Boot. He was regularly included in lists of the greatest footballers of all time and was named among FIFA's 100 greatest living players by Pelé in 2004.

When Eusébio died in January 2014 at the age of 71, Portugal mourned as though it had lost a national hero. Thousands lined the streets of Lisbon, while tributes poured in from around the football world.

Now, nearly six decades after his exploits in England, Eusébio's World Cup scoring record has finally been eclipsed by Cristiano Ronaldo.

But while the record belongs to Ronaldo, the foundation was laid by Eusébio. Long before Portugal became a football powerhouse, before European Championship triumphs and World Cup contenders, there was the "Black Panther" — the man who introduced Portuguese football to the world and inspired generations that followed.