The Far Post Header ‘Hall of Fame’ No.10 – Alfredo Di Stefano
Alfredo Di Stefano is considered one of the greatest players of all-time. His preferred role was as a forward and scored a hugely impressive 487 goals in 669 matches over the course of his career.
His playing career began at River Plate in Argentina at the age of 17. His debut came in 1943 and four years later, joined Huracan on loan for a year.
River Plate wanted him back and put him back in the starting line-up until a player’s strike in Argentina in 1949. Di Stefano crossed the border to Colombia and played there for four years, bagging and 100 goals in only 119 appearances.
Both Barcelona and Real Madrid were alerted to the goalscoring of Di Stefano and after much wrangling and disputing, the two clubs agreed a part-transfer. Di Stefano would play the 1953/54 and 1955/56 season at Real and play the 1954/55 and 1956/57 season at Barca.
Di Stefano made a slow start to his career in Spain and Barcelona decided to sell their share of the transfer to Real. It was a decision that they would soon regret.
His debut for Real came against Barcelona and Di Stefano scored a hat-trick in a 5-0 win.
In his time at Real Madrid, he was part of the side who won five European Cups in a row between 1955 and 1960. He scored in each of these five finals, including a hat-trick in the 1960 Final.
As well as dominating the European Cup, Real dominated the Spanish
League and Di Stefano won eight League Championships.
When Di Stefano reached the end of his contract at Real Madrid in 1964 at the age of 38, he was offered a coaching contract. He refused the offer and joined Espanyol, where he spent the last two years of his career.
Although he was born in Argentina, Di Stefano played international football for Spain and Colombia as well as his native Argentina.
He scored six goals in six internationals for Argentina before playing four times for a Colombian League Representative XI.
Di Stefano was banned from playing for Argentina indefinitely by FIFA because he had appeared for the Colombian side.
Three years after moving to Spain to play for Real Madrid, Di Stefano gained Spanish citizenship. He made his debut for the Spanish national side in January 1957, scoring a hat-trick in a 5-1 win over Holland.
Two years after his illustrious playing career came to an end in 1966, Alfredo Di Stefano began a managerial career. He had three separate spells in charge of Valencia as well as managing Boca Juniors and his former club Real Madrid on two separate occasions. He also managed six other club during his time in management.
To get a better understanding of how instrumental Di Stefano was to Real’s success, it is well worth watching the highlights of the 1960 European Cup Final. He was instrumental to Madrid’s success.
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