Guilherme Santa Graça do Espírito Santo (30 October 1919 – 25 November 2012), best known as Espírito Santo, was a Portuguese

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

and

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

. Over the course of 12 seasons he amassed

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

totals of 117 games and 79 goals, spending all of his career at Benfica, winning seven major titles. Nicknamed ''The Black Pearl'', he was a prolific goalscorer, with Peyroteo even claiming he was a more complete footballer than him.

Career

Club

Born in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, of São Toméan descent, Espírito Santo moved to

Luanda Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...

at the age of 8, and joined the local Benfica delegation, Sport Luanda e Benfica. A fast and agile footballer, his performances led him to being call up to Benfica at age 16, to replace his idol —

Vítor Silva Vítor Marcolino da Silva (20 February 1909 – 21 July 1982) was a Portuguese footballer. Listed by Benfica, as one of the club's best forwards in history, Silva represented the club on 131 official games, scoring 108 goals. Club career Born ...

– as centre forward. He made his debut on 10 January 1937, still age 17, in a 2–1 win against

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória (b ...

, scoring both goals from Benfica. His 23 goals in two seasons, help the club achieve a three-peat, with Espírito Santo assisting in the final two, in 1936–37, 1937–38. A notable event in his career was match for the 1937–38 Campeonato de Lisboa, when scored 9 goals in a 13–1 trashing of

Casa Pia :''This article refers to the institution. For the child abuse scandal, see Casa Pia child sexual abuse scandal.'' The Casa Pia is a Portuguese institution founded by Maria I, known as ''A Pia'' ("Mary the Pious"), and organized by Police Intendan ...

on 5 December 1937. He also took part on historic reversal of a 1–6 deficit in the semi-final of the Taça Portugal against

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

on 18 June 1939, scoring twice in a 6–0 win. In 1941, he suffered a serious medical condition that sideline him for two whole seasons, only reappearing on 6 February 1944. Moved to the right wing, Espírito Santo helped the club win two more league titles, and two Portuguese Cups, scoring over 50 goals in the process. He retired in 1950, playing his last match on 13 November 1949, with 211 matches and 152 goals scored. For his services, the club awarded him with the ''Aguia de Ouro (Golden Eagle)'' medal, and the

Olympic Committee of Portugal The Olympic Committee of Portugal ( pt, Comité Olímpico de Portugal ; acronym: COP) is a non-profit organisation of public utility, which serves as the National Olympic Committee (NOC) for Portugal. It was founded on October 26, 1909, to ensure ...

, with a Fair Play medal. He had a short stint as manager in the late seventies, managing C.D. Montijo in the final matches of the 1976–77 season, as well Quimigal do Barreiro for two seasons on the second level. He died in Lisbon on 25 November 2012, at age 93.

International

Espírito Santo represented the

Portugal National Football Team The Portugal national football team ( pt, Seleção Portuguesa de Futebol) has represented Portugal in international men's Association football, football competition since 1921. The national team is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federat ...

on 8 games, with his first cap arriving on 28 November 1937, in 2–1 win against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

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. He sole goal came on 9 January 1938, in a 4–0 win against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

, and was last capped on 21 April 1945, in an away loss against

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

Athletics

Espírito Santo ventured briefly into the

Track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

competitions. He was spotted when he jump 1.70 meters to go get a ball that stranded off pitch. He held the national record for

High Jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

for 20 years and was national champion for

Long Jump The long jump is a track and field event in which athletes combine speed, strength and agility in an attempt to leap as far as possible from a takeoff point. Along with the triple jump, the two events that measure jumping for distance as a gr ...

and

Triple Jump The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...

in 1938.

Personal life

Espírito Santo's brother, Renato, was also an athlete for Benfica.

Honours

Football

Benfica * Campeonato da Liga/Primeira Divisão: 1936–37, 1937–38, 1941–42, 1942–43, 1944–45, 1949–50 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...

: 1939–40, 1943–44, 1948–49 *

Campeonato de Lisboa The Campeonato de Lisboa (English: Championship of Lisbon) was a regional football league in Portugal, situated at the third level of the Portuguese football league system. The division started in 1906, even before Lisbon Football Association was c ...

: 1939–40

Athletics

Benfica *

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Record - (1,88m) from 1940-1960 *

Record - (6,89m) from 1938–1940 *

Record - (14,015m) from 1938–1940

References

General * Specific

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Espirito Santo, Guilherme 1919 births 2012 deaths Footballers from Lisbon Portuguese people of São Tomé and Príncipe descent Association football wingers Association football forwards Portuguese footballers Portugal international footballers S.L. Benfica footballers Portuguese football managers Primeira Liga managers