The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and OpinionsFootball has seen many great players over the years, many of which were, and continue, to be household names around the globe. The game has changed drastically, but the talent of the players has not, and many of the players who are commonly regarded as some of the best of all time plied their trade well-before the game turned into the mega-business it now is. Every sport has their all-time legends and contemporary stars, and none more so than football, and comparing players of different generations is an impossible task.
Here at The Sports Lowdown, we attempt to do just that. In our top 1o countdown, our specialist team of football writers will formulate a list of the greatest players of all time in reverse order, commencing at 8am on Monday and finishing at 6pm that same day.
Pele? Maradona? Messi? Zidane? Keep a watchful eye on proceedings at The Sports Lowdown to find out who we have picked as our top 10 players of all time, and as usual we would love to hear your views, so any comments would be greatly appreciated!
Number 6 – Alfredo Di Stefano
‘Who is this man?’ He takes the ball from the goalkeeper; he tells the full-backs what to do; wherever he is on the field he is in position to take the ball; you can see his influence on everything that is happening… I had never seen such a complete footballer. It was as though he had set up his own command centre at the heart of the game. He was as strong as he was subtle. The combination of qualities was mesmerising.’ – Bobby Charlton, on watching Alfredo Di Stefano for the first time in 1957.
Who Is This Man?
For the generations that missed Real Madrid’s early European Cup dominance, Di Stefano was the Zinedine Zidane of the 1950s. Stefano played for three countries, won five consecutive European Cups and twice won European Footballer of the Year in a career that reinvigorated football.
Without Di Stefano’s presence, success of the European Cup competition – known now as the Champions League – may not have been realised so quickly. Upon the competition’s launch in the 1955/1956 season, the globe’s lingering post-World War Two paranoia inhibited clubs from taking part. An example of this was the English authorities’ discouragement of domestic champions Chelsea from playing in the competition, as they were suspicious of the event.
Di Stefano’s magnetism, however, dismantled that fear. Everybody wanted to see the ‘Blond Arrow’ and his Real Madrid team play. Dubbed ‘the most complete player in the history of the game’ by Pele and Eusebio, Di Stefano must also be considered one of football’s most influential figures. His talent drew together the football world in what has ended up as one of the most lucrative competitions in today’s sporting calendar, the Champions League.
Di Stefano’s Career
Di Stefano scored in each of the five consecutive European Cup finals that Real Madrid won between 1955 and 1960, including a hat-trick in the 7-3 cup final demolition of Eintracht Frankfurt. His 49 goals in 58 appearances is the most impressive goal ratio in European Cup history, ahead of even Lionel Messi’s and Cristiano Ronaldo’s remarkable records.
Beyond European success, Di Stefano also drove Real Madrid to domestic supremacy, winning the Primera Division eight times in the space of a decade. It is little wonder that the maestro picked up the European Footballer of the Year award in both 1957 and 1959, peaks in a Real Madrid club career that included 216 goals in 282 league matches.
Despite relentless domestic glory, the international equivalent proved elusive. Di Stefano played for Argentina, Columbia and Spain but became arguably the best player never to appear in a World Cup. Born in Buenos Aires, Di Stefano scored six goals in six games for Argentina but the national team declined participation in the 1950 and 1954 World Cups, as Di Stefano’s first two opportunities to ride the crest of the world football wave unduly fizzled out.
Following an eight month strike over pay in the Argentine league, Di Stefano left his first club River Plate to play for Millonarios FC in Columbia. Though unrecognised by FIFA, Di Stefano went on to be capped four times by Columbia before the move that defined his career.
Before Real Madrid swooped in, though only 27, Di Stefano had become so disillusioned with football that he had considered retiring. He was painting the roof of his house when FC Barcelona came hunting for his signature, a race that Real Madrid quickly imposed upon.
As the fight between Barcelona and Real Madrid for Di Stefano’s signature grew ludicrous, one suggested solution was the idea of him playing alternate seasons for each team, such was the desperation to land the star.
Concluding the transfer saga, Di Stefano ended up signing for the team of which the Spanish dictator General Franco supported, Real Madrid – speculation around Franco’s potential influence in the proceedings boils on to this day. In the first El Classico of the season Di Stefano scored four in a 5-0 win at the Bernabeu as Spaniards ran out of salt for the whole of the following week, such was the amount rubbed into Barca’s bitter wounds during the rout.
After gaining Spanish citizenship, Di Stefano represented Spain 31 times scoring 23 goals, but again missed out on the world stage. Spain failed to qualify for the 1958 tournament and a muscle injury prevented Di Stefano from playing in 1962, as only the mountain left in football went unconquered. Aged 36, Di Stefano retired from an international football career that had barely even begun.
In 1964 Di Stefano transferred to Espanyol and played there until his retirement from football altogether, rounding off an incredible career aged 40 years old. His subsequent time as a manager did boast titles at Boca Juniors, River Plate, Valencia and Real Madrid but represents barely an inkblot on the rest of Di Stefano’s sizable football profile. The great man passed away at the age of 88 in July 2014.
Style of Play
Zidane’s peculiarly languid yet gorgeously lithe dribbling rhythm draws comparisons to Di Stefano’s mesmeric elegance. Though primarily a centre forward, Di Stefano picked up possession everywhere on the pitch, commanding the game from anywhere he wished – leading to the calls that he’s the most complete footballer that ever lived.
Kidnapped
Di Stefano was once kidnapped during the 1963 Real Madrid pre-season tour of South America as a Fidel Castro-type coup took him hostage at gunpoint, after storming his hotel room in Caracas, Venezuela.
Blindfolded, Di Stefano was smuggled out of the building and held at a secret location for three days before his eventual release, as the criminals realised harming their famous captive would be counter-intuitive. Di Stefano later stressed that the kidnappers had treated him with great care.
In a friendly against Porto a day later, Di Stefano said of the incident that he was ‘a footballer not an icon.’
The ‘Blond Arrow’ was wrong about that; being so good at the former rendered him powerless to stop the latter, being forever written into history as one of the most iconic footballers of all time. If you ask Real Madrid fans who they think the greatest player to ever play for their club is, the likelihood is 70% of them would say Di Stefano: not only was he a humble, down to earth character, but he was also a joy to watch, and with the success he brought to the club, he is arguably Real Madrid’s best ever player. And that alone warrants his place on this list.
