Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.He was instrumental in Real Madrid's domination of the Champions league during the 1950's,a period in which the club won the trophy in five consecutive seasons from 1956 and with whom he won 15 official titles.
Born 4 July 1926,Alfredo Di Stefano played for River Plate from 1945 to 1949 and scored 49 goals in 66 appearances.Di Stefano,who was an Argentine-Spanish footballer played his International football mostly for Spain,but he also played for Argentina and Columbia.In 6 appearances for Argentina,he scored 6 goals and for Spain,he scored 23 goals in 31 appearances.
Di Stefano was a player renowned for his outstanding stamina,tactical versatility and vision and was described by many elite footballers as the most complete footballer in the history of the game.Di Stefano was best known for his time at Real Madrid.He is currently the fifth highest goalscorer in the history of Spain's top division and Real Madrid's second highest league goalscorer of all time with 216 goals in 282 league matches.He is the second highest goalscorer in the history of El Clasico.
Di Stefano's 44 goals in 58 matches was for decades the all time highest tally in the Champions league.It has since been surpassed by five players.Di Stefano scored in five consecutive Champions league finals for Real Madrid between 1956 and 1960.
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.In 2004 he was voted the 4th greatest player of the century behind Pele,Maradona and Johan Cruyff. Perhaps the most memorable day of his footballing career was the 7-3 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 Champions league final,a game many consider to be the finest exhibition of club football ever witnessed in Europe.Alfredo Di Stefano however had one sad story; like many great players before and after him,he never played in the World cup.Real Madrid fans may forget Santiago Bernabeu,they may even forget Cristiano Ronaldo(afterall he has won only one Champions league for them),but will they ever forget a man,who for five consecutive seasons kept handing the Champions league trophy to them?
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