Mário Coluna

This name uses Portuguese naming customs. The first or maternal family name is Esteves and the second or paternal family name is Coluna.

Mário Coluna

Coluna in 1969
Personal information
Full name	Mário Esteves Coluna
Date of birth	(1935-08-06)6 August 1935
Place of birth	Inhaca, Mozambique
Date of death
Place of death	Maputo, Mozambique
Height
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
	Albasini
	Ferroviário
1951–1954	Desportivo Lourenço Marques
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1954–1970	Benfica	364	(89)
1970–1971	Lyon	19	(2)
1971–1972	Estrela Portalegre
Total		383	(91)
International career
1955–1968	Portugal	57	(8)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Mário Esteves Coluna (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈmaɾiu kuˈlunɐ]; 6 August 1935 – 25 February 2014) was a Portuguese footballer who played mainly as a central midfielder.

He spent most of his career with Benfica, appearing in 525 official games and scoring 127 goals during 16 professional seasons. Dubbed Monstro Sagrado (Sacred Monster) he won 19 major titles with his main club, including ten national leagues and two European Cups.

Coluna represented Portugal at the 1966 World Cup, earning a total of 57 caps.

Club career

Born in Inhaca, Portuguese Mozambique, to a Portuguese father and a Mozambican mother, Coluna was spotted by S.L. Benfica while playing for Desportivo de Lourenço Marques, where he excelled at basketball and track and field. Signed by the Lisbon club in 1954 he started playing as an inside forward, scoring a career-best 14 goals in 26 games in his first season in Portugal and winning the first of his national championships; subsequently he was successfully reconverted as a central or attacking midfielder by manager Otto Glória, where he put to good use his stamina and strength, adding to this an accurate and powerful long-distance shot and technical skills.

Coluna captained Benfica from 1963 to 1970, in 328 matches. Already at the service of Olympique Lyonnais he was awarded a testimonial match by his main club on 8 December 1970, playing against a UEFA selection that featured the likes of Johan Cruyff, Dragan Džajić, Geoff Hurst, Bobby Moore, Luis Suárez or Uwe Seeler. He retired professionally at the age of 35, after one sole campaign with the French side – he still spent one year with amateurs Sport Clube Estrela from Portalegre, acting as player-coach.

Coluna scored in both European Cup finals won by Benfica: in 1961 he beat FC Barcelona's Antoni Ramallets from long range, in a 3–2 win in Bern. The following year, against fellow Spaniards Real Madrid, he netted the 3–3 equaliser and, subsequently, was supposed to take the penalty that resulted in the 4–3 lead (eventual 5–3 triumph), when youngster Eusébio politely asked if he could shoot it instead.

International career

Coluna played 57 times for the Portuguese national team, scoring eight goals. His first appearance was in a friendly match with Scotland on 4 May 1955 (0–3 loss), and his last on 11 December 1968 in a 2–4 defeat in Greece for the 1970 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Coluna captained the Magriços side in all except one of the games during the third-place campaign at the 1966 World Cup, in England.

Post-retirement / Death

After Mozambique became independent in 1975, Coluna held the post of President of its Football Federation. He also served as the country's Minister of Sports, from 1994 to 1999.

Coluna died on 25 February 2014 at the age of 78 in Maputo, after not being able to overcome a pulmonary infection.

Honours

Club

Benfica

• European Cup: 1960–61, 1961–62; Runner-up 1962–63, 1964–65, 1967–68
• Primeira Liga (10): 1954–55, 1956–57, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1968–69
• Taça de Portugal (5): 1954–55, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1961–62, 1963–64, 1968–69, 1969–70; Runner-up 1957–58, 1964–65

Country

Portugal

• FIFA World Cup: Third-place 1966

Individual

• World Soccer World XI: 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966
• FIFA World Cup: All-Star Team 1966
• FIFA XI: 1967

External links

• Mário Coluna at footballzz.co.uk
• Mário Coluna profile at ForaDeJogo
• Mário Coluna at National-Football-Teams.com
• Mário Coluna – FIFA competition record
• Mário Coluna – FIFA competition record (2nd part)
• Portugal stats at Eu-Football
• Mário Coluna at the Internet Movie Database

Sporting positions
Preceded by Germano	Portugal captain 1966–1968	Succeeded by Hilário