Among the mourners who filled a small chapel in Gyor in western Hungary, Feher's birthplace, were the entire Benfica squad flown over to attend the funeral.

"The entire world of football mourns you," Hungarian Football Federation president Imre Bozoky told the congregation which also included Hungarian and Portuguese government ministers, and Feher's teammates from the national team.

The 24-year-old Feher's casket was draped in a white cloth with stripes of the Hungarian flag and topped by a Benfica scarf.

"When the day comes that we win another championship," Benfica president Luis Filipe Vereira said, "we will also win it for you and we will also raise our glasses for your soul."

"It was a true soul, the soul of a true man," Vereira added in a choking voice through a Hungarian interpreter.

Most of the mourners braved a chilling cold as they waited outside the overflowing chapel near the snow-covered grounds of the cemetery, with many holding flowers and wiping away tears.

Tibor Fodor, a former teammate from Feher's days at the local top division club Gyor ETO, said they had played football together since their childhood days.

"What everyone has said about him and how nice he was to everybody, it's all true," Fodor said as he held a bouquet of flowers.

Feher, 24, collapsed playing for Benfica in a league match against Vitoria Guimaraes.

He was stretchered off the field in Guimaraes and taken to hospital but died shortly afterwards. An autopsy performed later proved to be inconclusive, according to the Portuguese prosecutor-general.

"You loved football so much that you even gave your life to it," said Feher's mother, Aniko, in an emotional speech recalling the player's childhood. "But I promise you that you will live on in our hearts."

"We will miss him terribly," said Dora Gal, who was standing outside the chapel with a single red rose in her hand recalling how she attended Feher's first-ever match for Gyor.

Feher, capped 25 times, moved to Portugal in the 1998/99 season from Gyor to play for FC Porto. He was signed by Benfica in 2002 after spells at Salgueiros and Braga.

"He was a perfect role model for any young person," Gal said, as an orange sunset illuminated the snow-covered grounds behind her where Feher found his final resting place.

News of Feher's sudden death has dominated newspaper headlines in Portugal and Hungary.

It followed that of Manchester City midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe who suffered a fatal heart attack when playing for Cameroon in last June's Confederation Cup semi-final against Colombia in Lyon, France.