Hilário

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For Portuguese goalkeeper, See Henrique Hilário.

Hilário Rosário da Conceição (born in Lourenço Marques, now Maputo, Mozambique, 19 March 1939), commonly known just by Hilário (pron. IPA: [i'laɾiu]), was one of the most prominent African-Portuguese football (soccer) players of the 1960s generation, as a right defender, but, unlike his countrymen Eusébio, Mário Coluna and Costa Pereira, who played for SL Benfica, he played for Sporting.

He was first noticed at Sporting Lourenço Marques, the same team where Eusébio debuted, and signed for Sporting years later. He won several titles of national champion and won the Cup of Portugal.

He appeared for the first time for the national team (the Selecção), on 11 November 1959, in a 3-5 loss against France, in a friendly match. He had 39 caps for the national team, until his last game, at 17 February 1971, a 0-3 loss to Belgium, in the Euro Cup qualifying. The apex of his career was perhaps at the Football World Cup 1966 finals, where he played all the games, and was, perhaps, the best player, without coming from Benfica.

After ending his career, he was a football manager, with minor results.

Portugal Portugal squad - 1966 World Cup 3rd place Portugal

1 Américo Lopes | 2 Joaquim Carvalho | 3 José Pereira | 4 Vicente Lucas | 5 Germano | 6 Fernando Peres | 7 Ernesto Figueiredo | 8 João Lourenço | 9 Hilário | 10 Mário Coluna | 11 António Simões | 12 José Augusto | 13 Eusébio | 14 Fernando Cruz | 15 Manuel Duarte | 16 Jaime Graça | 17 João Morais | 18 José Torres | 19 Custódio Pinto | 20 Alexandre Baptista | 21 José Carlos | 22 Alberto Festa | Coach: Otto Glória