Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé (born 4 July 1926 in
Barracas,
Buenos Aires), born into a family of
Italian immigrants from
Capri,
is a former
Argentinian 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. 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 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 d'Or winners to elect the Football Player of the Century.
Former players such as
Pelé,
Eusébio,
Luis Suárez,
Sandro Mazzola and
John Charles described Di Stefano as "the most complete footballer in the history of the game". Alfredo Di Stéfano born into a family of Italian immigrants from
Nicolosi, near
Catania ("from Capri" it's fake without verification). 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 Puskás. 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
Milan's
Andriy Shevchenko 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.
One year after his retirement as footballer, a
testimonial match was held on 7 June 1967 and played for a
trophy which named after himself.
The Alfredo Di Stéfano Trophy or Alfredo Di Stéfano Cup was won by
Celtic of
Scotland. The trophy was contested in a match between
Real Madrid and Celtic at Real's
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in
Madrid. The match took place 2 weeks after Celtic's victory in the
European Cup 1967. Celtic won the match 0–1, with
Bobby Lennox scoring the victory and
Jimmy Johnstone stealing the show.
At one stage the whole
stadium began to shout
"Olé!" when Johnstone dribbled and dodged of their own team's players, at the full time the whole stadium applauded him.
The match was also seen as the battle to determine the true champions of
Europe caused Real Madrid had won
European Cup in the
previous year as the most successful club with six times in total.
Di Stéfano played with three different national teams during his career: he played six times with the Argentine national team, twice with Colombia (not recognized by FIFA) and 31 times with the Spanish national team. However, he never played in the
World Cup Finals.
