Eusébio scored 9 World Cup goals in six matches, all at England 1966, the only World Cup he played. He was the tournament’s top scorer, three goals clear of Helmut Haller, as Portugal finished third in their first World Cup, and as of the 2026 tournament only four players have scored more at a single World Cup.
World Cup record by tournament
| Tournament | Age | Played | Started | Goals | Portugal’s finish | Individual award |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966, England | 24 | 6 | 6 | 9 | Third place | Top scorer (Golden Boot) |
| Total | 6 | 6 | 9 |
Every World Cup match
| Date | Stage | Opponent | Portugal’s result | Eusébio’s goals | Minute of each goal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 July | First round | Hungary | 3-1 | 0 | — |
| 16 July | First round | Bulgaria | 3-0 | 1 | 38 |
| 19 July | First round | Brazil | 3-1 | 2 | sources differ on the first; 85 |
| 23 July | Quarter-final | North Korea | 5-3 | 4 | 27, 43 pen, 56, 59 pen |
| 26 July | Semi-final | England | 1-2 | 1 | 82 pen |
| 28 July | Third-place match | Soviet Union | 2-1 | 1 | 12 pen |
| Total | 9 |
The 1966 World Cup in England
Eusébio was twenty-four and had been born in Lourenço Marques, in what was then Portuguese Mozambique, the city now called Maputo. He started all six of Portugal’s matches.
The first round: three wins, and the end of the champions
Portugal won all three group matches. Eusébio did not score in the opening 3-1 win over Hungary. He scored against Bulgaria in the 38th minute of a 3-0 win, and twice against Brazil, the defending champions, in a 3-1 win. Brazil finished third in the group and went out.
The quarter-final against North Korea: 0-3 to 5-3
Goodison Park, Liverpool, 23 July. North Korea were also in their first World Cup, and they had beaten Italy 1-0 in the first round. They scored after one minute, through Pak Seung-zin, and again through Li Dong-woon in the 22nd and Yang Seung-kook in the 25th. Portugal were 3-0 down.
- 27th minute, 1-3. Eusébio pulled one back.
- 43rd minute, 2-3. Eusébio scored a penalty, just before half-time.
- 56th minute, 3-3. Eusébio scored his third.
- 59th minute, 4-3. After a long run from the halfway line Eusébio was brought down in the area, and he scored the penalty.
- 80th minute, 5-3. José Augusto headed in from close range.
Eusébio scored Portugal’s first four goals, two before half-time and two in the first fifteen minutes of the second half. North Korea had won over Middlesbrough, where they had beaten Italy: FIFA estimates that 3,000 supporters from the town travelled to Liverpool to cheer them on.
The semi-final and the third-place match
Portugal lost the semi-final 2-1 to England at Wembley on 26 July, with two goals from Bobby Charlton. Eusébio scored from the penalty spot in the 82nd minute. Two days later, in the third-place match at Wembley, he scored a penalty in the 12th minute against the Soviet Union, and Portugal won 2-1.
Records and rankings
Portugal scored 17 goals in the tournament and Eusébio scored nine of them, more than half. Four of his nine goals were penalties: two against North Korea, one against England and one against the Soviet Union. He scored in his last five matches, every one after the opening game, and his rate is 1.50 goals per match.
Helmut Haller of West Germany was second on the scoring list with six, so Eusébio finished three goals clear. The Golden Boot was first awarded in 1982, under the name Golden Shoe; FIFA credits Eusébio with it as the top scorer of 1966.
As of the 2026 tournament, only four players have scored more goals in a single World Cup: Just Fontaine (13 in 1958), Sándor Kocsis (11 in 1954), Gerd Müller (10 in 1970) and Kylian Mbappé (10 in 2026). The all-time list of World Cup scorers with ten goals or more starts one goal above his total.
As of the 2026 tournament, Cristiano Ronaldo is the only Portugal player with more World Cup goals: 11. Eusébio’s own numbers cannot change: he died on 5 January 2014, and 1966 was the only World Cup he played.
Sources and method
Goals are counted at the final tournament only, penalties included; appearances, scorers and results were recounted from RSSSF’s 1966 match records and checked against Wikipedia and FIFA (full method: How we verify figures).
- FIFA, Four-goal Eusebio inspires comeback for the ages, 16 May 2024.
- FIFA, FIFA World Cup all-time leading scorers, 19 July 2026.
- RSSSF, World Cup 1966 finals.
- Wikipedia, Eusébio, 1966 Group 3 and knockout stage.
- UEFA, obituary of Eusébio, 5 January 2014.
Where the sources disagree
| Goal | FIFA | RSSSF | Wikipedia | Used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eusébio’s second against North Korea | 43 | 42 | 43 | 43 |
| Eusébio’s third against North Korea | 56 | 57 | 56 | 56 |
| José Augusto’s against North Korea | 80 | 79 | 80 | 80 |
| Yang Seung-kook’s against Portugal | 25 | 24 | 25 | 25 |
| Eusébio’s first against Brazil | no minute given | 36 | 27 | none |
The minutes of Eusébio’s goals against Bulgaria, England and the Soviet Union, and of his second against Brazil, are the same in RSSSF and Wikipedia. RSSSF misprints the date of the third-place match as 1970.
The account of the quarter-final follows FIFA’s match report. Goals per match is our own calculation, rounded to two decimals, and Portugal’s 17 goals are the sum of the six results.
FIFA’s 2024 report says that only three players had scored more than nine goals in a single World Cup. That was true when it was published; Mbappé’s ten in 2026 made it four.