The Portuguese striker extinguished all French hopes by scoring a legendary goal during extra time in the Euro final on July 10, 2016.
Eder… His name is a shocking memory that is still firmly rooted in the minds of French fans and players. The one who no one expected, who came off the bench in the 80th minute, became the hero of Portugal. During the second half of extra time, he tried to cross, scored and presented the European champions' trophy to the Portuguese on a platter.
While the French will face their best enemies on Friday, July 5, in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024, they will face a team that is very different from the one they faced in 2016. Among the main absentees: the regular Eder, who is now away from the Seleção.
Without a club since 2022, he is now retired.
The former LOSC player is now 36 years old. He has not played for any football club since the 2021/2022 season. Back then, he was a striker for Al-Raed club. His only stint in the Saudi league, where Ronaldo also plays, was not a great success. Since then, his future has been written between dotted lines in the world of football.
His last selection with Portugal dates back to 2018.
Despite his wonderful goal against France in 2016, Eder has never been able to live up to the expectations placed on him. He was never selected for the other major competitions that followed, such as the 2018 World Cup or Euro 2021. His last match for the Seleção dates back to November 20, 2018 against Poland, where he returned to playing form for four bad minutes.
However, he has received a nice compliment from the selection since becoming an honorary ambassador for the Portugal national team in 2023.
Once again the people's hero of Russia
The Euro 2016 finalist had a difficult return to reality at the club. After an extra year of contract with Lille, where he was booed in many French stadiums for his goal against the Blues, he traveled to Lokomotiv Moscow. He will play for this club until 2021. His Russian period was very modest, as he scored only 10 goals in 119 matches.
But Eder would once again become a people's hero when he scored the only goal in the decisive match between Lokomotiv Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg in 2017. With that goal, he gave the Russian club its first title as national champion since 2004. It was enough to silence the critics and put his four years in Russia into perspective.
