Best: Eusebio ‘set world on fire’

Iconic shot: Portuguese hero Eusebio lets fly against AC Milan during the final of the European Cup at Wembley in 1963. Benfica lost the game 2-1, although Eusebio opened the scoring. *AFP photo

Clyde Best paid tribute to Portugal football legend Eusebio, recalling a player who ‘set the world on fire’.

Former West Ham player Best played against the Benfica hero, who passed away at the weekend aged 71 from heart failure, in a testimonial match at Upton Park and then later in the North American Soccer League. 

He got to know Eusebio, who was part of a touring Benfica party who played in Bermuda in 1987, and described him as a player who ‘had everything’ and who was also a  ‘fantastic human being’.

Revered in Portugal and idolized by football fans across the globe, Best remembers the moment he first watched the striker.

He told the Bermuda Sun: “I played against him in the North American Soccer League but my first recollection of Eusebio was during the 1966 World Cup. I was a young fella, it was his first World Cup and he was fantastic — he set the world on fire. Everybody was talking about ‘Eusebio, Eusebio’.”

Later on in his career Best would meet and get to know the man, originally from Mozambique, Africa, who was known as the Black Panther or simply The King.

Eusebio’s later playing spells included a successful stint with the Toronto Metros, where he helped them win the NASL championship, and the Las Vegas Quicksilvers, which coincided with Best’s time at the Tampa Bay Rowdies.

Best said: “My first game against him was during Geoff Hurst’s testimonial at Upton Park [in 1971]. He came over to play and he was a fantastic human being, very friendly to talk to and happy to give advice. 

“Playing against him you were in awe because you’d heard so much about him and Pele — they were the guys that were setting world football on fire and to be on the same field as someone you idolized was fantastic.

“He was able to make a lot of people very happy in Toronto, where there is a big Portuguese community. I was reading the paper yesterday and they still can’t believe he’s gone.”

He added: “We went out a few times when he was playing in Las Vegas and we had a good time. He was a very nice man, a gentleman. He knew what he had to do, you never saw him let himself down.”

His single-handed demolition of North Korea in the 1966 World Cup quarter-final was one of many remarkable games by Eusebio, whose four goals turned around a 3-0 deficit to help his country to a 5-3 win and set up a semi-final with hosts England.

Best believes Eusebio will forever be remembered alongside arguably the greatest of them all — Pele. 

“He’s going to be up there at the top. Anyone who knows anything about football will know who Eusebio is.” 

Of his famous power, he added: “I always tell young players today that if he was playing with the balls they play with today then he would have killed a goalkeeper!

“He had everything, he worked hard, was quick and scored goals — a lot of goals.”