Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé born 4 July 1926 in Barracas, City Buenos Aires) is a former Argentine footballer and coach,
widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.
He is
most associated with Real Madrid and was instrumental in their
domination of the European Champions' Cup during the 1950s, a period in
which the club won the trophy in five consecutive seasons from 1956.
Along with Francisco Gento, he was one of only two players to play a
part in all five victories. Di Stéfano played international football
mostly for Spain, but he also played for Argentina and Colombia.
Di
Stéfano, nicknamed "Saeta rubia" ("blond arrow"), was a powerful forward
with great stamina, tactical versatility, and vision, who could also
play almost anywhere on the pitch. He is currently the 4th highest
scorer in the history of Spain's top division, and Real Madrid's 2nd
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 (in September 2009 he said Di Stéfano was the
best Argentinian player "ever"). Di Stéfano was voted fourth, behind
Pelé, Diego Maradona, and Johan Cruyff, in a vote organized by the
French weekly magazine France Football consulting their former Ballon Gold winners to elect the Football Player of the Century.
Former
players such as Pelé, Eusébio, Luis Suárez, Sandro Mazzola and John
Charles described Di Stéfano as "the most complete footballer in the
history of the game"
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
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