Alfredo Di Stefano (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 Puskas 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 Stefano also played international football for Argentina, Colombia, and Spain.

Di Stefano, nicknamed Saeta rubia ("Blonde arrow"), has been inducted into the International Football Hall of Fame.International Football Hall of Fame He was a powerful forward 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 Sanchez (234 goals) and Telmo Zarra (251). Di Stefano 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."Golden Players take centre stage" by UEFA.com He was named by Pele as one of the "top 125 greatest living footballers" in March 2004. Di Stefano was voted fourth, behind Pele, Diego Maradona and Johan 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 RSSSF.com

Club playing career

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

Di Stefano is best known for his time at Real Madrid where he was an integral part of one of the most successful teams of all time. He scored a club record 216 league goals in 262 games for Real, striking up a fearsome partnership with Ferenc Puskas. Di Stefano'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 Raul 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.

Controversy surrounding transfer to Spain

Di Stefano's transfer to Spain would prove controversial. Despite FC Barcelona seemingly being in control of the transfer, the player still ended up playing for their arch-rivals Real Madrid. The mission to secure the signing of Di Stefano to FC Barcelona had first been given to Ramon Trias Fargas, who, besides being a lawyer and expert in commercial law, was the son of one of the share-holders of Millonarios, where Di Stefano was playing at the time. According to Trias Fargas, Barcelona's own management effectively obstructed the transfer when club president Marti Carreto also involved Barcelona chief scout Pepe Samitier in the negotiations. Samitier, in his turn, brought in his Colombian friend, Joan Busquets, to speed up the talks with the Colombian club. Busquets, a director of Millonarios' rivals CF Santa Fe, seem to have tried more to sabotage the deal than to secure it. After issuing a harsh ultimatum to Millonarios to accept a modest offer for the player he organized Di Stefano's defection from Colombia when the ultimatum was rejected, despite Di Stefano owing the club money. River Plate, who owned the rights to the player, had accepted the transfer on the condition that Millonarios also agreed upon the transfer, wich they, after what they perceived as Busquets' bullying tactics, weren't interested in doing. Trias Fargas' negotiations with the Colombians regarding a transfer sum were also braking down when Carreto, despite assurances to Trias Fargas that he would pay whatever price Trias Fargas thought necessary, rejected a figure whenever it was agreed between the lawyer and the Colombians.

In 1953, Di Stefano 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 conclude his contract with Barcelona but during the discussions with the Federation, Real Madrid's president Santiago Bernabeu, acting upon the apparent division within the Barcelona management, convinced him to sign for them instead.

During the parallel negotiations between the two Spanish clubs and Millonarios, the Spanish Federation issued a ban on foreign players in the Spanish league. This effectively gave the government, through the federation, the role as broker. On September 15, the Spanish Federation made public the decision, which club presidents Carreto and Bernabeu had signed, to allow Di Stefano four seasons in Spain - two for each team, to be played alternately. The agreement created such a storm of protests by the rest of the Barcelona management and the fans that Carreto resigned a week later. The interim board succeding him opted to scratch the agreement all together for a compensation of four million pesetas, announcing on October 23 that Real Madrid could have the player permanently. In the meantime, Di Stefano 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 Stefano'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 Stefano scored three goals against the club who would have signed him. This incident exacerbated the traditional enemity between the two clubs.Jimmy Burns: Barca, a people's passion, Bloomsbury Publishing, London 1999

International playing career

Di Stefano 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) and 31 times with the Spanish national team. However, he never played in the World Cup Finals.

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 Stefano (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 Stefano was not eligible to play because he had previously been capped by both Argentina and Colombia.

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 Stefano (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.1962 World Cup report by CBC/Radio Canada web site He retired from international play after that.

Managerial 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 Sporting Clube de Portugal in the 1974-5 season and Real Madrid between 1982 and 1984.

After Retirement

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

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

Alfredo Di Stefano 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 Stefano. In comments made to RAI television in 1997, he said, "I don't know if I was a better player than Pele, but I can say without any doubt that Di Stefano was better than Pele. I am proud when one speaks of Di Stefano.... I can say that Maradona could be worse than Pele. But I emphasize Di Stefano was better".

On Tuesday May 9, 2006, the Alfredo Di Stefano 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 Stefano Stadium by 6-1 with goals from Sergio Ramos, Antonio Cassano -2-, Roberto Soldado -2- and Jose Manuel Jurado.

Honours

Club

River Plate
- Primera Division Argentina: 1945, 1947
Millonarios
- Copa Bodas de Oro del Real Madrid: 1952
- Colombian Championship: 1949, 1951, 1952, 1953
Real Madrid
- La Liga: 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964
- Copa del Rey: 1962
- European Cup: 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960
- Intercontinental Cup: 1960
- Pequena Copa del Mundo de Clubes: 1953, 1956
- Latin Cup: 1955, 1957

Country

'''Argentina
- Copa America: 1947

Individual

Argentine League Top Scorer: 1947
Colombian League Top Scorer: 1951, 1952
Pichichi: 1954, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959
European Footballer of the Year: 1957, 1959
Super Ballon d'Or: 1989

References

Bibliography

(Autobiography)

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Alfredo_Di_Stefano

Alfredo Di Stefano