Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé (4 July 1926 – 7 July 2014) was an Argentine and Spanish professional footballer and manager who played as a forward. Nicknamed "Saeta Rubia" ("The Blond Arrow"), he played in all five of Madrid's European Cup victories during the 1950s and 1960s. He played international football for Argentina and Colombia before becoming a naturalised citizen of Spain and playing for its national team. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time and the greatest Real Madrid player ever. He is currently the only player to win the Super Ballon d'Or.
Di Stéfano began his club career at age 17 with Argentina's River Plate in 1943. Due to a footballers' strike in Argentina in 1949, he transferred to Millonarios of Bogotá in the Colombian league until 1953, when he left for Real Madrid. He scored a total of 216 league goals for Real Madrid, a club record at the time. In 1964, Di Stefano signed with Espanyol and played for them for the remainder of his career until retiring at the age of 40 in 1966.
At the international level, Di Stéfano helped Argentina win the Copa América in 1947. However, although having played for three different national teams, he never played a single match at the FIFA World Cup during his career. His 49 goals in the European Cup was the highest of any player at the time. He was awarded the Ballon d'Or in 1957 and 1959. He is currently the seventh highest scorer in the history of Spain's top division, and places fourth on Real Madrid's highest league goalscorer of all time. He is Madrid's joint leading goalscorer in the history of El Clásico, alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.
In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, Di Stéfano was selected as the Golden Player of Spain by the Royal Spanish Football Federation as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years.. UEFA.com (29 November 2003). 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. In 1989, Di Stefano was awarded the Super Ballon d'Or, given to the best player of the previous three decades, and is currently the award's only ever reciepient. He was also named at 4th in the list of "Greatest male players of the century" by the IFFHS.The World's best Player of the Century Top66 (2000) - iffhs.de In 2004, he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players. In 2008 Di Stéfano 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.
Early life Alfredo Di Stéfano was born in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Barracas. His father, also named Alfredo Di Stéfano, was a first-generation Italian Argentine. His mother, Eulalia Laulhé Gilmont, was an Argentine woman of French and Irish descent. Di Stéfano's father had played for River Plate as a defender, and introduced the young Di Stéfano to football. Di Stéfano grew up playing street football on neighbourhood teams, and his talent drew attention. In 1940, his family moved to the countryside, where he played for Unión Progresista with his brother Tulio. In 1943, the family returned to Buenos Aires. Di Stéfano's football idol in his youth was Arsenio Erico of Paraguay.
Club career
River Plate
In 1944, Di Stéfano's father wrote a letter of recommendation to River Plate, and the club invited Di Stéfano to audition for the youth team. The club was impressed by Di Stéfano, and assigned him to the second team. The following year, at age 19, he played one match for the first team, a 2–1 loss to Huracán in the 1945 Argentine championship on 15 July, 1945. Stéfano did not play again that year, but he won his first title as River Plate won the championship.
Huracán
The president of Huracán was impressed by Di Stéfano's talent after witnessing him play his one match the previous season. Realising he little chance of becoming a permanent member of River Plate first team, Di Stéfano agreed to play for Huracán on loan in 1946. Huracán forward Herminio Masantonio had recently retired, and the club needed a replacement. Di Stéfano scored the first two goals of his career in a 3–1 victory against Estudiantes (LP). In a match against River Plate, he scored the fastest goal in the history of the Argentine championship, after about ten seconds of play. In total, he scored 10 goals in 25 appearances for Huracán; the club tried to sign him permanently at the end of the season, but could not afford the 90,000 pesos River Plate asked for the transfer.
Return to River Plate 1947–1949
Upon his return to River Plate, Di Stéfano became an integral part of La Máquina, taking on the role of the departing Adolfo Pedernera, who had signed for Atlanta. Carlos Peucelle initially put Di Stéfano on the flank, a position in which Di Stéfano struggled; in a game against Atlanta of Pedernera, Peucelle decided to use him as a center forward and River eventually won 6–1. Soon, Di Stéfano imposed himself as the center forward and his teammates adapted to his game. He received the nickname of Saeta Rubia from journalist Roberto Neuberger. Though he had to leave the team for some time due to compulsory conscription, Di Stéfano contributed significantly to winning the 1947 Argentine Primera División, becoming the top scorer of the league with 27 goals.
The league victory gave River Plate the right to represent Argentina in the Copa Aldao against the champions of Uruguay Nacional Montevideo who featured great player like goalkeeper Anibal Paz and Walter Taibo in a two-nation club competition that tracked origins to 1913 and for many it was considered the precursor to the Copa Libertadores. In November 1947, River beat Nacional 4–3 with Di Stéfano scoring one goal in Montevideo, and four days later Di Stéfano celebrated his first international club trophy with a 3–1 victory in Buenos Aires.
In February 1948, champions River Plate participated in the inaugural South American Championship of Champions in Santiago facing the other South American champions, finishing second behind Vasco da Gama with Di Stéfano scoring four goals in six games. During the Argentine championship of 1948, the Football Association suspended the tournament for a short time due to the protests of players led by Adolfo Pedernera and Alfredo Di Stéfano that resulted in a player's strike in a bid to gain professional status and rights. Despite that upheaval Di Stéfano scored 13 goals in 23 games and River Plate finished third. The strike lasted for eight months until 1949 and it eventually meant the departure of the best Argentine footballers to other leagues, in particular Colombia's, which was one of the most lucrative in the world at the time.
In one of his last games in Argentina, on 31 July 1949, Di Stéfano played in the role of goalkeeper, replacing the owner Amadeo Carrizo for a few minutes and keeping the clean sheet in a derby won against Boca Juniors.
Millonarios 1949–1953 After the Superga air disaster, in May 1949, a friendly match between River Plate and Grande Torino was played and Di Stéfano was promised to the Granata. However the Argentine forward was soon after contacted by Adolfo Pedernera, who had already agreed to terms with the Colombian Bogota-based club Millonarios on 9 August 1949, after another one of his teammates, Néstor Rossi, signed for the Colombian club without River Plate receiving any compensation for the transfer. Di Stéfano signed with the Colombians. Millonarios, who could not afford to pay the transfer fees anyhow, offered him a salary clearly higher than that at River Plate, and the Argentine forward started a new chapter in his career in Colombia, in period called El Dorado. Many international stars like the Hungarians Béla Sárosi, László Szőke, the Argentines René Pontoni, Héctor Rial, Englishman Charlie Mitten from Manchester United for 5,000 pounds a year, Neil Franklin from Stoke City, French-Hungarian Ferenc Nyers, Italian Luigi Di Franco, the Brazilian Heleno de Freitas and others had joined the league after Pedernera first signed.
The Colombian league had turned professional in 1948, beginning the El Dorado period on 25 April 1949. Di Stéfano, Perdenera, and Nestor Rossi who joined Millonarios in the summer, formed part of the famous team called the Ballet Azul that won their first title ever beating Deportivo Cali in the 1949 final, with Di Stéfano scoring 16 goals in 14 games. Di Stéfano scored 23 goals in 29 games the following 1950 season, but Millonarios finished two points behind eventual champions Deportes Caldas. Di Stéfano, who kept himself in excellent condition, excelled during his games and led Millonarios to a second title in 1951, leaving runners-up Boca Juniors de Cali 11 points behind at the final table. Di Stéfano scored 32 goals in 34 games, more than any other player in the league. Millonarios would go on to lose the 1951 Copa Colombia (played in 1952) to Boca Juniors de Cali.
The 1952 league had the same outcome: Milionarios overtook Boca Juniors de Cali, won their third title, and Di Stéfano was once again top scorer with 19 goals. In October 1952, Di Stéfano also led Millonarios to the Copa Colombia final after beating Cúcuta Deportivo by 2–1. The final would be played in May 1953, after Di Stéfano had already gone to Argentina.
In October 1951, the División Mayor del Fútbol Profesional Colombiano agreed to the Pacto de Lima with FIFA, with the requirement that foreign players would return to their countries after October 1954. Di Stéfano scored a total of 267 goals in 292 games for Milionarios, and is considered one of the best footballers in the history of the Colombian League.
The disputed transfer to Spain In March 1952, Real Madrid organized a friendly tournament in the Spanish capital at its newly constructed home ground; River Plate was invited to participate in Real Madrid's 50th-anniversary tournament. The tournament was called Bodas de Oro, but once Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu heard about the new powerhouse in South America, Real Madrid cancelled the invitation to River Plate and invited the Colombians as the South American representative. The Colombians participated in the tournament and won it, after drawing 2–2 with Swedish champions Norrköping and overcoming Los Blancos, who were managed by Uruguayan legend Hector Scarone, by a 4–2 margin with a brace from Saeta Rubia in the presence of President Santiago Bernabéu, who arrived to the stadium to observe Adolfo Pedernera. Millonarios would start a global tour and, spearheaded by Di Stéfano, they would beat Hungary and world champions Uruguay.
Soon after Millonarios' return to Colombia, the Barcelona directors visited Buenos Aires and agreed with River Plate, the last FIFA-affiliated team to have held Di Stéfano's rights, for his transfer in 1954 for the equivalent of 150 million Italian lira (according to other sources 200,000 dollars). This started a battle between the two Spanish rivals for his rights. In Christmas 1952, Di Stéfano, still contracted with Millonarios, returned briefly to Buenos Aires, where he was even making plans to abandon football and start a business, as the Argentine league was still not professional.
FIFA appointed Armando Muñoz Calero, former president of the Spanish Football Federation as mediator. Calero decided to let Di Stéfano play the 1953–54 and 1955–56 seasons in Madrid, and the 1954–55 and 1956–57 seasons in Barcelona. The agreement was approved by the Football Association and their respective clubs. Although the Catalans agreed, the decision created various discontent among the Blaugrana members, and the president was forced to resign in September 1953.