The Eusébio Cup is a pre-season friendly

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

match hosted by Portuguese club

S.L. 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'', Benfica is one of the " ...

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, Ben ...

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

Estadio BBVA Estadio Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, BBVA, formerly known as the Estadio BBVA Bancomer, is an association football stadium in Guadalupe, Nuevo León, Guadalupe, Greater Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. Nicknamed "El Gigante de Acero" in Spanish ...

and

Estádio Algarve The Estádio Algarve (') is an association football stadium located between Faro and Loulé municipalities, in the Algarve region of Portugal. The stadium has a total capacity of 30,305 spectators and was purposely built for the UEFA Euro 2004 ...

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

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 Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Stri ...

, 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 Association football, football List of football ...

, with the other winners being Benfica (2009, 2011, 2012, 2022, 2024),

Tottenham Tottenham (, , , ) is a district in north London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, ...

(2010),

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

(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), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

(2014),

Monterrey Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...

(2015),

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) 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. The city is main ...

(2016) – in a match that also served to honour the memory of the

Grande Torino The was the historic Italian football team of Torino Football Club in the 1940s, five-time champions of Italy, whose players were the backbone of the Italy national team and died on 4 May 1949 in the plane crash known as the Superga air di ...

team who died in the

Superga air disaster The Superga air disaster (, "Tragedy of Superga") occurred on 4 May 1949, when a Fiat G.212 of Avio Linee Italiane (Italian Airlines), carrying the entire Torino F.C., Torino association football, football team (popularly known as the ''Grande ...

– and

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

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

AC Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

and

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

, 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 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 Hotspur. Teams ...

. The competition was revived after a three-year hiatus, in 2022. The match was not played in 2023 and returned once again the following year.

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 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 ...

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

2024

Performance by team

References

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