Alfredo Di Stéfano

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Alfredo Di Stéfano
Personal information
Full name	Alfredo Di Stéfano Laulhe
Date of birth	July 4, 1926 (age 80)
Place of birth	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height	178cm
Nickname	La Saeta Rubia (The Blonde Arrow)
Playing position	Centre Forward
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1943-1945 1946-1947 1947-1949 1949-1953 1953-1964 1964-1966	River Plate Huracán River Plate Millonarios Real Madrid RCD Espanyol	11 (0) 25 (10) 65 (49) 294 (267) 282 (219) 21 (9)
National team
1947 1949 1957-1961	Argentina Colombia Spain	6 (6) 4 (0) 31 (23)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Alfredo Di Stéfano (born July 4, 1926 in Barracas, Buenos Aires) is an Argentine-born former footballer and coach. He is most associated with Real Madrid, and with Ferenc Puskás was instrumental in their domination of the European Cup of Champions during the 1950s, a period in which the club won the trophy in five consecutive seasons from 1956. Di Stéfano also played international football for Argentina, Colombia, and Spain.

Di Stéfano, nicknamed Saeta rubia ("Blonde arrow"), is widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time.^[1] He was a powerful forward blessed with great stamina, tactical versatility, and vision. He is currently the 3rd highest scorer in the history of Spain's top division, with 228 goals in 329 games, behind Hugo Sánchez (234 goals) and Telmo Zarra (251). Di Stéfano is also Real Madrid's highest league goalscorer of all time, with 216 goals in 282 league matches between 1953 and 1964.

In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of Spain by the Royal Spanish Football Federation as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years.^[2] He was named by Pelé as one of the "top 125 greatest living footballers" in March 2004. Di Stefano was voted fourth, behind Pelé, Maradona and Cruijff, in a vote organised by the French weekly magazine France Football consulting their former Ballon D'Or winners to elect the Football Player of the Century ^[3]

Contents 1 Club playing career 2 International playing career 2.1 World Cup absence 3 Managing career 4 After retirement 5 Honours 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 External links

[edit] Club playing career

Born to a family of Italian immigrants, though with an Irish maternal grandmother, Di Stéfano began his career at Argentina's River Plate aged 17, in 1943. For the 1946 season he was loaned to Club Atlético Huracán, but he returned to River in 1947. Due to a footballer's strike in Argentina in 1949, Di Stéfano went to play for Millonarios of Bogotá in the Colombian league. He won six league titles during the first 12 years of his career in Argentina and Colombia.

In 1953, Di Stéfano signed a deal with FC Barcelona and FIFA authorized the transfer from River Plate, who still held his registration. The Spanish Federation (leaned on heavily by the Franco regime), however, did not recognise the deal. On May 13, 1953, he arrived in Spain to sign his contract with Barcelona but during the discussions with the Federation, Real Madrid's president Santiago Bernabéu convinced him to sign for them instead. Real Madrid had negotiated with Millonarios and the dispute had arisen because the Colombian league at that time was operating outside the control of FIFA.

On September 15, the Spanish Federation made public the decision to allow Di Stéfano four seasons in Spain - two for each team, to be played alternately. FC Barcelona protested and their President announced on October 23 that Real Madrid could have the player permanently. In the meantime, Di Stéfano had made his Madrid debut (on September 23) and played poorly in each of his first few matches for the club. The reasons for FC Barcelona's decision to let the player go to Madrid are disputed by the two clubs. While Real Madrid have always maintained it was a voluntary decision by F.C. Barcelona, their rivals held that it was a decision made under pressure from Franco's fascist government. There are also those who feel Di Stéfano's poor form in his first few games led Barcelona to think they might be better off without him anyway. Barcelona's decision having been announced, the two clubs met the following week - and Di Stéfano scored three goals against the club who would have signed him. This incident exacerbated the traditional enmity between the two clubs.

Di Stéfano's 49 goals in 58 matches was for decades the all-time highest tally in the European Cup, until it was surpassed by Real Madrid's Raúl in 2005, and Chelsea's Andriy Shevchenko (then playing for A.C. Milan) and Real Madrid's Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2006. Perhaps the highlight of his time with the club was their 7-3 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 European Cup Final at Hampden Park, a game many consider to be the finest exhibition of club football ever witnessed in Europe. He was voted European Footballer of the Year in 1957 and 1959.

He moved to Espanyol in 1964 and played there until hanging up his boots at the age of 40.

[edit] International playing career

Di Stéfano played with three different national teams during his career: he played six times with the Argentine national team, four times with Colombia (not recognized by FIFA)^{[citation needed]} and 31 times with the Spanish national team. However, he never played in the World Cup Finals.

[edit] World Cup absence

The first World Cup in which he would have been able to participate was the 1950 tournament. As Argentina refused to participate, Di Stéfano (aged 24) missed his first chance at playing in the World Cup.

For the 1954 World Cup, Argentina did not enter and FIFA declared Di Stéfano was not eligible to play because he had previously been capped by both Argentina and Colombia.^{[citation needed]}

He acquired Spanish citizenship in 1956, and played four World Cup qualifying matches for Spain in 1957, but the team failed qualify for the 1958 World Cup.

In 1961, Di Stéfano (36) who had already won 5 European Cups, helped Spain qualify for the World Cup of 1962. A muscular injury just before the competition prevented him from playing in the finals.^[4] He retired from international play after that.

[edit] Managing career

After retirement, he moved into coaching. He guided the Argentine clubs Boca Juniors and River Plate to league titles, and won La Liga and the Copa del Rey with Valencia CF as well as the European Cup Winners' Cup with the side in 1980. He also managed Real between 1982 and 1984.

[edit] After retirement

Alfredo Di Stéfano currently resides in Spain. On November 5, 2000 he was named President of Honour of Real Madrid.

On Saturday December 24, 2005, Di Stéfano suffered a heart attack, from which he recovered.

Alfredo Di Stéfano once said of Diego Maradona "Technically, on an individual basis, he is far superior to me in what he can do with a ball; my ability to cover an entire field and versatility is what I hold over him, though with the right training he could easily do the same." An amazing tribute from a man many consider the best of all time.

On the other hand, Maradona has also had words praising Di Stéfano. In comments made to RAI television in 1997, he said, "I don't know if I was a better player than Pelé, but I can say without any doubt that Di Stéfano was better than Pelé. I am proud when one speaks of Di Stéfano.... I can say that Maradona could be worse than Pelé. But I emphasize Di Stéfano was better".

On Tuesday May 9, 2006, the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium was inaugurated at the City of Real Madrid, where Real Madrid usually trains. The inaugural match was between Real Madrid and Stade de Reims, a rematch of the European Cup final won by Real Madrid in 1956. Real Madrid won the inaugural match in the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium by 6-1 with goals from Sergio Ramos, Antonio Cassano -2-, Roberto Soldado -2- and José Manuel Jurado.

[edit] Honours

Team honours

• Argentinian Championship: 2 (1945, 1947)
• Colombian Championship: 4 (1949, 1951, 1952, 1953)
• Copa Bodas de Oro del Real Madrid: 1 (1952)
• Pequeña Copa del Mundo de Clubes: 2 (1953, 1956)
• Spanish Championship: 8 (1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964)
• Spanish Cup: 1 (1962)
• Latin Cup: 2 (1955, 1957)
• European Cup: 5 (1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960)
• Intercontinental Cup: 1 (1960)
• Copa América: 1 (1947)

Individual honours

• Argentine League Top Scorer: 1 (1947)
• Colombian League Top Scorer: 2 (1951, 1952)
• Spanish League Top Scorer: 5 (1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959)
• European Footballer of the Year: 2 (1957, 1959)
• Super Ballon d'Or: 1989

[edit] References

1. ^ International Football Hall of Fame
2. ^ "Golden Players take centre stage" by UEFA.com
3. ^ RSSSF.com
4. ^ 1962 World Cup report by CBC/Radio Canada web site

[edit] Bibliography

• (Autobiography) Di Stefano, Alfredo (2000). Gracias, Vieja: Las Memorias del Mayor Mito del Futbol. Madrid: Aguilar. ISBN 8403092008. 

[edit] External links

• Spanish league player stats from LFP's official web site
• Spanish league manager stats from LFP's official web site
• Spain national team stats from Sportec.es
• Detail of international appearances by RSSSF
• Di Stefano's best - video (over 50 Mb)
• UEFA.com - Spain's Golden Player

Preceded by Stanley Matthews	European Footballer of the Year 1957	Succeeded by Raymond Kopa
Preceded by Raymond Kopa	European Footballer of the Year 1959	Succeeded by Luis Suárez
Preceded by -	UEFA Jubilee Awards Spain	Succeeded by -

World Team of the 20th Century  v • d • e
Lev Yashin (Goalkeeper) Carlos Alberto Torres | Franz Beckenbauer | Bobby Moore | Nílton Santos (Defenders) Johan Cruijff | Alfredo Di Stéfano | Michel Platini (Midfielders) Garrincha | Diego Maradona | Pelé (Forwards)

	Spain squad - 1962 FIFA World Cup
1 Araquistáin | 2 Sadurní | 3 Carmelo | 4 Collar | 5 del Sol | 6 Di Stéfano | 7 Echeberría | 8 Garay | 9 Gento | 10 Gracia | 11 Rivilla | 12 Peiró | 13 Pachín | 14 Puskás | 15 Eulogio | 16 Reija | 17 Rodri | 18 Adelardo | 19 Santamaría | 20 Segarra | 21 Suárez | 22 Vergés | Coach: Herrera