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We recall today the figure of a great Portuguese, Eusébio da Silva Ferreira.

Parliament decided, in the terms of the Law, to attribute to Eusébio da Silva Ferreira the honours of the National Pantheon.

In line with the unanimous decision of the Members of Parliament, this gesture intends that a tribute be awarded, and I quote «the national symbol, the man of goodwill, the national soccer player and sportsman, evoking his feature as a veritable marker in the dissemination and globalization of Portugal’s worldwide image and relevance».

This was, I stress, a unanimous decision of the Members of Parliament and of the parliamentary party political groups. We are viewing a gesture of the peoples’ representatives that well expresses the national feeling in the esteem and recognition of the figure of Eusébio da Silva Ferreira.

I am emotionally bound to this gesture of the Members of Parliament.

As a sportsperson, as a human being, Eusébio da Silva Ferreira was always above, very much above, the squabbles and controversies that brand our daily life. The admiration we have for his rare personality is shared by all Portuguese, and transversal to ideological divisions and sports club sympathies.

Eusébio is truly everybody’s heritage. Within his family and those nearer to him, and in those who had the privilege of his close acquaintance he left an indelible and greatly Portuguese feeling of nostalgia. To the remainder, including the newer generations, the «Black Panther» is a reference to a sportsperson who stood out, as few did in the World, by his artistry in the sports grounds but also by his human warmth and by the sympathy that he immediately awakened in his equals.

As I had the opportunity to assert as soon as I received the news of his passing away, «he was one of the most captivating individualities I met in my life».

Truly, Eusébio faced with surprising humility the greatness of his genius. Admired by millions, he treated all and every one with extraordinary modesty, the natural modesty of those who are really great, that do not require showing off or exhibiting, since they possess the serene conscience of their value and their greatness.

He gave the National Team his limitless dedication. For Portugal, in an unforgettable occasion, he shed tears. Eusébio’s tears, on that day, were Portugal’s tears on the day of his decease.

We evoke his personality today with the highest and most solemn means with which the Republic honours its greatest.

When attributing to Eusébio da Silva Ferreira National Pantheon honours, the Portuguese State expresses its gratitude to a champion in sports, a football legend that is admired throughout the World. But, above all, Portugal honours a man who, due to his natural talent but also due to the strength of his work, gave so many feelings of happiness to his countrymen.
Eusébio da Silva Ferreira is a binding factor amongst the Portuguese, but also in the Portuguese speaking world. I was able to witness the fondness with which he was welcomed in Mozambique, the land of his birth.

It is the immense affection he had for us that we want to render today, as a sign of gratitude for what he meant as a sportsperson and what he was as a human being.

His example will subsist in our memory. And, from now onwards, Eusébio will not only be in our hearts. He will rest alongside the greatest names in our public life and culture. Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, as few individualities were in the 20th century, was genuinely loved by the Portuguese, by a whole country.

The Portuguese Republic, when rendering him this tribute, follows the feelings of our People, carrying out a truly democratic act, through which justice is given to a rare and exceptional Portuguese, whose memory we must honour.

To Eusébio’s memory, thank you very much.