The Eusébio Cup is a pre-season friendly football match hosted by Portuguese club

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904 as ''Sport Lisboa'', Be ...

since 2008. It has been played mostly at their home stadium,

Estádio da Luz The Estádio da Luz (), officially named Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Lisbon, Portugal. It is used mostly for association football matches, hosting the home games of Portuguese club S.L. Benfica, it ...

, with the two exceptions being the 2015 and 2018 editions (played at

Estadio BBVA The Estadio BBVA, nicknamed "El Gigante de Acero" (Spanish for "The Steel Giant"), formerly known as the Estadio BBVA Bancomer, is a stadium developed by FEMSA and C.F. Monterrey in Guadalupe, Nuevo León, Guadalupe, Monterrey Metropolitan area, Gr ...

and

Estádio Algarve The Estádio Algarve (Algarve Stadium), also known as ''Estádio Faro/Loulé'' (Faro/Loule Stadium), is an association football stadium located between Faro and Loulé municipalities, in the Algarve region of Portugal. The stadium has a capacit ...

, respectively). The two-team competition is named after Portuguese international and former Benfica player

Eusébio Eusébio da Silva Ferreira (; 25 January 1942 – 5 January 2014), nicknamed the "Black Panther", the "Black Pearl" or "O Rei" ("The King"), was a Portuguese footballer who played as a striker. He is considered one of the greatest players of ...

, who presented the trophy to the winning team until 2013, before his death in January 2014. There were plans to extend the number of participants to four, a move that Eusébio himself was in favor of, but no changes were ever made in that regard. The cup's first edition was won by

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter is ...

, with the other winners being Benfica (2009, 2011, 2012, 2022),

Tottenham Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Wal ...

(2010),

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

(2013),

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...

(2014), Monterrey (2015),

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

(2016) – in a match that also served to honour the memory of the Grande Torino team who died in the

Superga air disaster The Superga air disaster occurred on 4 May 1949, when a Fiat G.212 of Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines), carrying the entire Torino football team (popularly known as the ''Grande Torino''), crashed into the retaining wall at the back of th ...

– and

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

(2018). No invited team, also including runners-up

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seaso ...

, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Newcastle United, has participated in more than one edition. The invitational match has been played in late July and early August, and it was played annually and without interruption until 2016. Despite two tries, there was no edition in 2017. A year later, the Eusébio Cup returned as part of the

2018 International Champions Cup The 2018 International Champions Cup (or ICC) was the sixth edition of a tournament comprising a series of friendly association football matches. It began on July 20 and ended on August 11. The tournament was won by English club Tottenham Hotspu ...

, only to be revived four years later in Lisbon.

Trophy

The Eusébio Cup trophy is made out of glass and bears the name of the match and its winners. Moreover, it features a figure of

, on the top, performing his trademark shooting technique. The figure is similar to Eusébio's statue outside

. The trophy is symbolic because it is dedicated to Eusébio, who is considered one of the greatest footballers of all time, and Benfica's greatest.

Broadcasters

The following is a list of television channels who broadcast the matches for Portugal.

Matches

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2022

Performance by team

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eusebio Cup Portuguese football friendly trophies S.L. Benfica 2008 establishments in Portugal Recurring sporting events established in 2008