Luis Figo must be tempted to feel like the king of all he surveys at the moment. Every Euro 2000 pundit seems to be hailing him the man of the tournament even before his opening match with England.

Michel Platini salutes him as the best in the world. So do his Portuguese colleagues. Fergie simply moans that he can't afford him.

At Portugal's training camp in Ermelo, the locals clamour to get close, he waves away a thousand interview requests and, on the pitch, you see his team-mates looking to him for a lead, responding to his authoritative bark.

In the final warm-up game, even if the opposition was a hapless Dutch Third Division side, he was sublime, scoring three and having a hand in five others. And he played for only 45 minutes.

As he took his leave, he could have been forgiven for thinking that he currently needs to bow to no one.

Yet, when an old guy in a tracksuit hobbles over towards the goalmouth on training day, puts an arm on his shoulder and starts muttering something to him, you see Figo stop in his tracks, nod attentively, almost deferentially, and then you remember that he can never be the king while Eusebio da Silva Ferreira is still around.

Eusebio's title is O Embaixador - the Ambassador - but the Portuguese Federation have not paid for him to come out here just for some ceremonial glad-handing.

The way the camp still talks about him, they honestly believe he remains a potent weapon after all these years. The players who grew up on the legend of their country's greatest sporting icon swear by him as motivator, counsellor and inspiration.

Here is a portly 58-year-old with a chronic knee complaint helping a new generation to finish some business against England which a tearful young athletic powerhouse failed to settle back in the 1966 World Cup semi-final.

'I prefer to think of the now, not the yesterday,' he said. What he thinks of the now is that Portugal's class of 2000 is ready to graduate in a way his never quite did.

'I don't think it's possible to truly contrast different eras but I look at this team and think that, in comparison, they are stronger and better than we were,' he said. In that case, perhaps they are the best Portugal has ever produced.

Yet, at national level, the current crop have been underachievers. Eusebio, however, despite being best remembered in England for a near-miss, remains Portugal's ultimate winner.

The players know the story of the kid from one of Sporting Lisbon's nursery clubs in Mozambique who was spirited to Portugal by Benfica to seal a deal while their rivals went apoplectic.

They know how that bemused teenager was to inspire Benfica's destruction of Real Madrid's European Cup monopoly, how he went only two of 15 years at the club without winning a trophy for them, how he became hailed as the 1965 European Footballer of the Year, '66 World Cup top-scorer and the finest player that Africa - or perhaps even Europe - ever produced.

They know too how it was his standing which persuaded UEFA to take the 2004 Championship to Portugal. Which is why when he talks, they listen.

'Even the great stars we have - Figo, Rui Costa - listen to him as they would listen to a father, and do what he says,' said his old friend in the Portuguese delegation, Antonio Florencio. 'It is not just out of respect. He is with them as if he was one of them.

'To Portugal, he has a special grade of fame all on his own, fame which means that, while alive, he can walk into the Stadium of Light past a statue of himself. Incredible. Even now, he signs more autographs than the players and, curiously, none of them minds.'

Comparisons between the complete striker and a predatory attacking midfielder may be invidious but it is not just that Eusebio scored 41 times in 64 internationals to Figo's 14 in 61 which makes Portugal feel the Barcelona man has a way to go to be mentioned in the same breath.

Figo's detractors also cannot abide his diving histrionics, while nobody ever had cause to doubt Eusebio's exemplary sportsmanship. But Eusebio clearly isn't about to place any more public pressure on Figo.

'You cannot compare us,' he said. 'Like all the great players, Figo has his own rare individual strengths which make him one of the best in the world. But in Portugal, we now have to talk of the team. It's not just about him but Rui Costa, Paulo Sousa, all of them.'

Anyway, came the afterthought, the only player recently whose power-speed game had reminded him of himself was Ronaldo.

'But he can't shoot like I did,' Eusebio mused.

In Ermelo, Figo sounded a mite weary about the increasing spotlight on him. He protested: 'I don't consider myself the star, we're a team which works really well together.'

Eusebio approves of his humility because the power of team spirit is what he preaches after watching so many Portuguese sides fail to add up to the sum of their gifted parts. He knows better than anyone that one man won't beat England alone.

'England have big players and today have more technical skill to go with the strength,' he said. 'It is such a tough group that any of the four teams could think of qualifying for the quarter-finals and this first match is the key.'

Before each game, he explained, he liked to address the players. This evening the message will be: 'Do not lose,' and the more he sees of his heirs, the more he fancies they will obey.

England have been warned by an old and great tormentor. No tears this time.