UNITED AND BENFICA

Tonight, in a ramshackle house in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, a famous old footballer will lower his heavy body on to a wooden chair in front of the family television set. Alongside his "baby sister", a 50-year-old woman who has never left their home country, Eusebio da Silva Ferreira will watch images of a game being bounced across the world from the glittering Estadio da Luz in Lisbon.

The immediate memory sparked by Benfica's latest Champions League encounter with Manchester United is of a minor footballing catastrophe for United last season - when defeat in Portugal helped condemn them to last place in their qualifying group. And so Eusebio will chuckle at his first glimpse of Sir Alex Ferguson who, growling in his best Glaswegian a few weeks ago, promised that "it will be a different bloody result against Benfica next time - believe me."

But even as modern Portuguese and English icons like Ronaldo and Rooney skip and snarl across the TV, Eusebio's weary head will be crammed with more moving ghosts. Those faded images - of George Best shredding Benfica in United's 5-1 rout in the 1966 European Cup quarter-final in Lisbon, and of Eusebio himself almost scoring the winning goal against United in the Wembley final two years later - rolled out of him last Thursday.

After a fractious interview in his favourite restaurant, tucked away in the backstreets of Lisbon, we sat together at the airport. As Eusebio waited for his flight to Maputo he put his hand on my arm and said, "Benfica against Manchester United is very special for me. Benfica is my real club but Manchester United is my English club. We are together in history. The glory of our clubs is like this" - and he laced his gnarled fingers together.

It was strange to think that, five hours before, I had wanted to murder Eusebio. I knew he was due to fly to southern Africa as an ambassador against racism for FIFPro, the world professional footballers' union which represents 57,500 players across the globe. His first engagement came at a conference in Cape Town last Saturday, where he launched a range of anti-racism initiatives in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Yet the idea of Eusebio as a diplomat had seemed laughable when we first met. Instead he spent half an hour looking pointedly away from me as he repeated bitterly that he did not want to speak about the past or himself. Nor did he want to discuss politics or racism. "I will speak only about football," he said - in Portuguese.

At the teeming airport, excited fathers turned the heads of bewildered children so they could gaze at the old man next to me. His name echoed around us but Eusebio did not appear to notice. He looked instead at the huge screen above our heads. It was filled with a bizarre commercial in which a beaming Mourinho parachutes down to earth to spread his wisdom.

"Jose is everywhere," Eusebio shrugged.

The five-year-old Jose had not yet been cuddled by Eusebio when Manchester United and Benfica played their Wembley final in May 1968. But Eusebio remembered how that European campaign had begun against tiny Glentoran. "Benfica went to Belfast in the first round. Glentoran were not good but we were losing until near the end when I scored: 1-1. The Lisbon game was 0-0. I remember because my equaliser at Glentoran was the first time the away-goal rule counted in Europe.

"In the final it was again 1-1 and I get a big chance to score the winner in the last minute. I am clear on goal - and only [Alex] Stepney is there. But I was not in good shape - they find a small fracture later in my right knee. So I move the ball to my left. It is a good shot but straight into Stepney's chest. If it had been my other foot, Benfica would have won that European Cup.

"It hurt me because they score three in extra-time. But football is also about losing. I looked at Denis Law, Bobby Charlton and George Best. They were all great footballers so I congratulated them. Best was the greatest-ever No7 and when he died I sent his family a fax in Belfast. I told them what George meant to me. Whenever I went to England I always see the man inside George Best. I knew that George - not the famous person with his troubles on the outside."

Eusebio boarded his plane first, and we parted properly this time. When he lifted his hand in farewell, he no longer looked haunted by his past. He looked more like an ordinary 64-year-old man, happy to be flying home again.