Former Benfica and Portugal captain Mário Coluna has died at the age of 78 after a pulmonary infection.
Coluna was a central figure in the great Benfica team of the 60s that won two European Cup finals.
In the 1961 final, he led the team to victory over Real Madrid 5-3 after defeating Tottenham Hotspur in the semis.
He scored 150 goals in 677 games for Benfica, whose president Luis Filipe Vieira said in an official club statement: “He was and will always be a football genius who magnified football and projected Sport Lisboa e Benfica to a global dimension.”
His home country of Mozambique is to give a state funeral to the great man. Coluna was captain of the Portugal team that lost 2-1 to England in the 1966 World Cup semi-final. He was a truly creative midfield genius who undoubtedly played a major role in helping Eusébio finish as top scorer at the tournament.
Within six weeks, Benfica, Portugal and Mozambique have now lost two of their greatest sporting icons.
