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Alfredo Di Stéfano (born 4 July 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"), has been inducted into the International Football Hall of Fame. He was a powerful forward with great stamina, tactical versatility, and vision. He could also play almost always anywhere on the pitch and despite being most well-known as a forward, was fantastic in defence. 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. He was named by Pelé as one of the "top 125 greatest living footballers" in March 2004. Di Stefano was voted fourth, behind Pelé, 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.
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.
Di Stéfano 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 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.
Di Stefano's transfer to Spain would prove controversial. The mission to secure the signing of Di Stefano to FC Barcelona had first been given to Ramón 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 Josep 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 of the player from 1955 onwards, had accepted the transfer on the condition that Millonarios also agreed upon the transfer, which 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. Trias Fargas blamed Carreto claiming Barcelona directors had allowed him to spend $20,000 but Carreto only accepted to offer $10,000 plus the player's debts.
In 1953, Di Stéfano signed a deal with FC Barcelona and FIFA authorized the transfer from River Plate. The Spanish Federation, however, did not recognise the deal. According to Andres Ramírez, the Spanish Football Federation secretary, both Millonarios and River Plate's consent were needed in order for Di Stefano to sign up with a Spanish club. On 13 May 1953, he arrived in Spain to conclude his contract with Barcelona but during the discussions with the Federation, Real Madrid's president Santiago Bernabéu, 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. On September 15, the Spanish Federation made public the decision, which club presidents Carreto and Bernabéu had signed, to allow Di Stéfano 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 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. On July 1953 Barcelona's coach, Fernando Dancik, wrote a report expressing numerous doubts about the player's form. Barcelona's decision having been announced, the two clubs met the following week - and Di Stéfano scored three goals against FC Barcelona. This incident exacerbated the traditional enemity between the two clubs.
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. He retired from international play after that.