Alfredo Di Stéfano
Alfredo Di Stéfano
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé[1] | ||
| Date of birth | 4 July 1926 | ||
| Place of birth | Buenos Aires, Argentina | ||
| Date of death | 7 July 2014(aged 88) | ||
| Place of death | Madrid, Spain | ||
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft91⁄2 in) | ||
| Playing position | Forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1945–1949 | River Plate | 66 | (49) |
| 1945–1946 | → Huracán (loan) | 25 | (10) |
| 1949–1953 | Millonarios | 101 | (90) |
| 1953–1964 | Real Madrid | 282 | (216) |
| 1964–1966 | Espanyol | 47 | (11) |
| Total | 521 | (376) | |
| National team | |||
| 1947 | Argentina | 6 | (6) |
| 1951–1952 | Colombia | 4 | (0) |
| 1957–1962 | Spain | 31 | (23) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1967–1968 | Elche | ||
| 1969–1970 | Boca Juniors | ||
| 1970–1974 | Valencia | ||
| 1974 | Sporting CP | ||
| 1975–1976 | Rayo Vallecano | ||
| 1976–1977 | Castellón | ||
| 1979–1980 | Valencia | ||
| 1981–1982 | River Plate | ||
| 1982–1984 | Real Madrid | ||
| 1985 | Boca Juniors | ||
| 1986–1988 | Valencia | ||
| 1990–1991 | Real Madrid | ||
| |||
Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé[2] (Spanish pronunciation: [alˈfɾeðo ði esˈtefano]; 4 July 1926 – 7 July 2014) was an Argentine professional footballer and coach. He is regarded as one of the best footballers of all time, and is best known for his achievements with Real Madrid, where he was instrumental in the club's domination of the European Cup and La Liga during the 1950s. Along with Francisco Gento and José María Zárraga, he was one of only three players to play a part in all five victories, scoring goals in each of the five finals. Di Stéfano played international football mostly for Spain after moving to Madrid, but he also played for Argentina and Colombia.
Di Stéfano, nicknamed "Saeta rubia" ("Blond Arrow"),[3][4][5] was a powerful, quick, skillful, and prolific forward, with great stamina, tactical versatility, creativity, and vision, who could also play almost anywhere on the pitch.[6][7][8][9] He is currently the sixth highest scorer in the history of Spain's top division, and Real Madrid's third highest league goalscorer of all time, with 216 goals in 282 league matches between 1953 and 1964. He is Madrid's leading goalscorer in the history of El Clásico, alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.[10][11][12]
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.[13] In 2004, he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players (in September 2009, he said Di Stéfano was the best Argentinian player "ever").[14] He was voted fourth, behind Pelé, Diego Maradona, and Johan Cruyff, in a vote organized by France Football magazine which consulted their former Ballon d'Or winners to elect the Football Player of the Century.[15]
In 2008 Di Stefano was honoured by both UEFA and Real Madrid with a special Presidents award issued by FIFA at a ceremony in Madrid, where a statue was also unveiled. Then UEFA President Michel Platini called Di Stefano "a great amongst the greats" while contemporaries Eusébio and Just Fontaine suggested that he was "the most complete footballer in the history of the game".[16]
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé[1] | ||
| Date of birth | 4 July 1926 | ||
| Place of birth | Buenos Aires, Argentina | ||
| Date of death | 7 July 2014(aged 88) | ||
| Place of death | Madrid, Spain | ||
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft91⁄2 in) | ||
| Playing position | Forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1945–1949 | River Plate | 66 | (49) |
| 1945–1946 | → Huracán (loan) | 25 | (10) |
| 1949–1953 | Millonarios | 101 | (90) |
| 1953–1964 | Real Madrid | 282 | (216) |
| 1964–1966 | Espanyol | 47 | (11) |
| Total | 521 | (376) | |
| National team | |||
| 1947 | Argentina | 6 | (6) |
| 1951–1952 | Colombia | 4 | (0) |
| 1957–1962 | Spain | 31 | (23) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1967–1968 | Elche | ||
| 1969–1970 | Boca Juniors | ||
| 1970–1974 | Valencia | ||
| 1974 | Sporting CP | ||
| 1975–1976 | Rayo Vallecano | ||
| 1976–1977 | Castellón | ||
| 1979–1980 | Valencia | ||
| 1981–1982 | River Plate | ||
| 1982–1984 | Real Madrid | ||
| 1985 | Boca Juniors | ||
| 1986–1988 | Valencia | ||
| 1990–1991 | Real Madrid | ||
| |||
Early life
Di Stefano's youth membership card at River Plate.
Born in Barracas, a neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Di Stéfano was the son of Alfredo Di Stéfano, a first-generation Italian Argentine (his father Michele emigrated to Argentina from Nicolosi in the 19th century), and Eulalia Laulhé Gilmont, an Argentine woman of French and Irish descent with her relatives being from Swinford, County Mayo.[17][18][19]
He 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 footballers' strike in Argentina in 1949, Di Stéfano went to play for Millonarios of Bogotá in the Colombian league.[20] He won six league titles during the first 12 years of his career in Argentina and Colombia.[21][22]
Club career
Di Stéfano with La Maquina in 1947.
Di Stéfano scoring a goal for Real Madrid where he won 15 official titles
Di Stéfano was 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 216 league goals in 262 games for Real (then a club record, since surpassed by Raúl and Cristiano Ronaldo), 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. It has since been surpassed by seven players, initially Real Madrid's Raúl in 2005 and most recently by Karim Benzema in 2016 and Robert Lewandowski in 2018.
Di Stéfano scored in five consecutive European Cup finals for Real Madrid between 1956 and 1960, including a hat-trick in the last. 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.[20]
International career
Di Stéfano played with three different national teams during his career.[5] He most notably played six times with the Argentine national team, and 31 times with the Spanish national team, scoring 23 goals. However, he never played in the World Cup.[5] The player also played four times for Colombia, during the Dimayor period of Colombian football. The team at the time was not recognised by FIFA as the league had broken transfer rules in signing players while still under contract.[23][24][25]
Di Stéfano scored 6 goals in 6 games as Argentina won the 1947 South American Championship, his only games for the country.[26] 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 again did not enter.[27]
Di Stéfano acquired Spanish citizenship in 1956 and made his debut for them on 30 January 1957 in a friendly in Madrid, scoring a hat-trick in a 5–1 win[28] to become one of only a few players born outside Spain to have appeared for their national team. He played four World Cup qualifying matches in 1957, but the team failed to 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.[29] He retired from international football afterwards.
Kidnapping in Caracas
On the night of 24 August 1963, the Venezuelan revolutionary group Armed Forces of National Liberation (FALN), kidnapped Alfredo Di Stéfano at gunpoint from the Potomac Hotel in Caracas while his team, Real Madrid, were on a pre-season tour of South America.[30] The kidnapping was codenamed "Julián Grimau", after the Spanish communist Julián Grimau García, executed by firing squad in Spain in April 1963 during Francisco Franco's dictatorship.[30] Di Stefano was released unharmed two days later close to the Spanish embassy without a ransom being paid, and Di Stefano stressed that his kidnappers had not mistreated him.[30] Di Stefano played in a match against São Paulo the day after he was released and received a standing ovation.[20][30]
A Spanish movie entitled Real, La Película (Real, The Movie), which recounted these events, was released on 25 August 2005. In a bizarre publicity stunt at the premiere, kidnapper Paul del Rio, now a famous artist, and Di Stefano were brought together for the first time since the abduction, 42 years before.[30]
Managerial career
Di Stéfano's memorabilia at the Real Madrid museum
After retirement, he moved into coaching. He guided the Argentine club Boca Juniors to league title,[21] and won La Liga and the Copa del Rey with Valencia as well as the European Cup Winners' Cup with the side in 1980. He also managed Sporting in the 1974/75 season and Real Madrid between 1982 and 1984. The 1982–83 was catastrophic for Real, they finished third in La Liga and were defeated finalists in the Supercopa de España, Copa de la Liga and Copa del Rey.[21] Madrid were also beaten by Aberdeen, managed by Alex Ferguson, in the European Cup Winners' Cup final.[21]
After retirement
Di Stéfano resided in Spain until his death in 2014. On 5 November 2000 he was named Honorary President of Real Madrid.[21]
On 24 December 2005, 79-year-old Di Stéfano suffered a heart attack.[31]
On 9 May 2006, the Alfredo di Stéfano Stadium was inaugurated at the City of Real Madrid, where Real Madrid usually train. Its 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 6–1 with goals from Sergio Ramos, Antonio Cassano (2), Roberto Soldado (2), and José Manuel Jurado.[32]
Death
On 8 July, his coffin was placed on public display at the Bernabéu Stadium. Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez and captain Iker Casillas were amongst those in attendance.[37] Following his death Di Stéfano received tributes from many famous football personalities including Alex Ferguson, Johan Cruyff, Pelé, Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Maradona and Bobby Charlton.[38] During the 2014 FIFA World Cup semi-final between Argentina and the Netherlands on 9 July, Di Stéfano was honoured with one minute of silence, while the Argentine team also wore black ribbons in a matter of respect.[39]
The Club Atlético River Plate from Argentina and Millonarios Fútbol Club from Colombia organized a friendly match in homage of their former player. The match was played on 16 July 2014, at the Millonarios' Estadio El Campín.[40]
Personal life
Di Stéfano married Sara Freites in 1950, they had six children: Alfredo, Ignacio, Sofia, Silvana, Helena and Nanette; she died in December 2012. At the time of her death he was dating his Costa Rican girlfriend Gina González,[41] his former secretary, 50 years his junior.
Career statistics
Club
| Club | Season | League | Cup | Continental | Total | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| River Plate | 1945 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Huracán (loan) | 1946 | 25 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 10 |
| Total | 25 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 10 | |
| River Plate | 1947 | 30 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 32 | 28 |
| 1948 | 23 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 30 | 18 | |
| 1949 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 9 | |
| Total | 66 | 49 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 75 | 55 | |
| Millonarios | 1949 | 14 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 16 |
| 1950 | 29 | 23 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 24 | |
| 1951 | 34 | 32 | 4? | 4? | 0 | 0 | 38? | 36? | |
| 1952 | 24 | 19 | 4? | 5? | 0 | 0 | 28? | 24? | |
| Total | 101 | 90 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 111 | 100 | |
| Real Madrid | 1953–54 | 28 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 27 |
| 1954–55 | 30 | 25 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 32 | 25 | |
| 1955–56 | 30 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 37 | 29 | |
| 1956–57 | 30 | 31 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 9 | 43 | 43 | |
| 1957–58 | 30 | 19 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 44 | 36 | |
| 1958–59 | 28 | 23 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 43 | 34 | |
| 1959–60 | 23 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 34 | 23 | |
| 1960–61 | 23 | 21 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 36 | 30 | |
| 1961–62 | 23 | 11 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 7 | 41 | 22 | |
| 1962–63 | 13 | 12 | 9 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 24 | 22 | |
| 1963–64 | 24 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 5 | 34 | 17 | |
| Total | 282 | 216 | 50 | 40 | 64 | 52 | 396 | 308 | |
| Espanyol | 1964–65 | 24 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 9 |
| 1965–66 | 23 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 33 | 5 | |
| Total | 47 | 11 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 60 | 14 | |
| Career totals | 521 | 376 | 70 | 54 | 78 | 57 | 669 | 487 | |
International
| Argentina | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Apps | Goals |
| 1947 | 6 | 6 |
| Total | 6 | 6 |
| Spain[28] | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Apps | Goals |
| 1957 | 7 | 7 |
| 1958 | 4 | 1 |
| 1959 | 5 | 6 |
| 1960 | 8 | 6 |
| 1961 | 7 | 3 |
| Total | 31 | 23 |
International goals
For Argentina
- Scores and results list Argentina's goal tally first.[42]
| Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 December 1947 | Estadio George Capwell, Guayaquil, Ecuador |  Bolivia | 6–0 | 7–0 | 1947 South American Championship | |
| 11 December 1947 | Estadio George Capwell, Guayaquil, Ecuador |  Peru | 2–1 | 3–2 | 1947 South American Championship | |
| 16 December 1947 | Estadio George Capwell, Guayaquil, Ecuador |  Chile | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1947 South American Championship | |
| 18 December 1947 | Estadio George Capwell, Guayaquil, Ecuador |  Colombia | 2–0 | 6–0 | 1947 South American Championship | |
| 18 December 1947 | Estadio George Capwell, Guayaquil, Ecuador | Colombia | 5–0 | 6–0 | 1947 South American Championship | |
| 18 December 1947 | Estadio George Capwell, Guayaquil, Ecuador | Colombia | 6–0 | 6–0 | 1947 South American Championship |
For Spain
- Scores and results list Spain's goal tally first.[42]
| Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 January 1957 | Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain |  Netherlands | 2–0 | 5–1 | Friendly | |
| 30 January 1957 | Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain | Netherlands | 4–0 | 5–1 | Friendly | |
| 30 January 1957 | Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain | Netherlands | 5–1 | 5–1 | Friendly | |
| 31 March 1957 | King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium |  Belgium | 1–0 | 5–0 | Friendly | |
| 31 March 1957 | King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium | Belgium | 4–0 | 5–0 | Friendly | |
| 24 November 1957 | Stade olympique de la Pontaise, Lausanne, Switzerland |  Switzerland | 2–0 | 4–1 | 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification | |
| 24 November 1957 | Stade olympique de la Pontaise, Lausanne, Switzerland | Switzerland | 3–0 | 4–1 | 1958 FIFA World Cup qualification | |
| 13 April 1958 | Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain |  Portugal | 1–0 | 1–0 | Friendly | |
| 28 February 1959 | Stadio Olimpico, Rome, Italy |  Italy | 1–0 | 1–1 | Friendly | |
| 28 June 1959 | Stadion Śląski, Chorzów, Poland |  Poland | 2–1 | 4–2 | 1960 European Nations' Cup qualifying | |
| 28 June 1959 | Stadion Śląski, Chorzów, Poland | Poland | 4–1 | 4–2 | 1960 European Nations' Cup qualifying | |
| 14 October 1959 | Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain | Poland | 1–0 | 3–0 | 1960 European Nations' Cup qualifying | |
| 22 November 1959 | Mestalla, Valencia, Spain |  Austria | 1–0 | 6–3 | Friendly | |
| 22 November 1959 | Mestalla, Valencia, Spain | Austria | 5–2 | 6–3 | Friendly | |
| 13 March 1960 | Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain | Italy | 2–1 | 3–1 | Friendly | |
| 10 July 1960 | Estadio Nacional, Lima, Peru | Peru | 1–0 | 3–1 | Friendly | |
| 14 July 1960 | Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile | Chile | 1–0 | 4–0 | Friendly | |
| 14 July 1960 | Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile | Chile | 2–0 | 4–0 | Friendly | |
| 17 July 1960 | Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile | Chile | 1–0 | 4–1 | Friendly | |
| 17 July 1960 | Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile | Chile | 2–0 | 4–1 | Friendly | |
| 19 April 1961 | Ninian Park, Cardiff, Wales |  Wales | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1962 FIFA World Cup qualification | |
| 11 June 1961 | Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Sevilla, Spain |  Argentina | 2–0 | 2–0 | Friendly | |
| 23 November 1961 | Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain |  Morocco | 2–1 | 3–2 | 1962 FIFA World Cup qualification |
Honours
Manager
Boca Juniors
Primera División: 1969
Copa Argentina: 1969
River Plate
Torneo Nacional: 1981
Valencia
Primera División: 1970–71
European Cup Winners' Cup: 1979–80
Segunda División: 1986–87
Real Madrid
Supercopa de España: 1990