Full name||colspan="2"|Alfredo Di Stéfano
|-
|Date of birth||colspan="2"|July 4, 1926
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|Place of birth||colspan="2"|Buenos Aires, Argentina
|-class="hiddenStructure"
|Date of death||colspan="2"|
|-class="hiddenStructure"
|Place of death||colspan="2"|,
|-class="hiddenStructure"
|Height||colspan="2"|178cm
|-
|-class="hiddenStructure"
|style="padding-right:1em;"|Nickname||colspan="2"|La saeta rubia
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|Position||Centre Forward
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! style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3" | Youth clubs
|-class="hiddenStructure"
|||colspan="2"|
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! style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3" | Professional clubs*
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| Years || Club || Apps (goals)
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|1943-1945 1946-1947 1947-1949 1949-1953 1953-1964 1964-1966||River Plate Huracán River Plate Millonarios Real Madrid RCD Espanyol||11 (0) 25 (10) 65 (49) 294 (267) 282 (219) 21 (9)
|-class="hiddenStructure"
! style="background: #b0c4de;" colspan="3" | National team
|-class="hiddenStructure"
|||Argentina Colombia Spain||7 (7) 4 (0) 31 (23)
|-
! style="font-size: 80%; font-weight: lighter;" colspan="3" |
* Professional club appearances and (goals) counted for the domestic league only.
|}
Alfredo Di Stéfano (born July 4, 1926 in Barracas, Buenos Aires) is an Argentine-born former footballer acknowledged as one of the greatest players in the history of the game. He is most associated with Real Madrid, and with Ferenc Puskás was instrumental in their domination of the European Cup during the 1950s, a period in which the club won the trophy in five consecutive seasons from 1956. Di Stéfano also played international football for Argentina, Colombia, and Spain.
Di Stéfano was a powerful forward blessed with great stamina, tactical versatility, and vision. He is currently the 3rd highest scorer in the history of Spain's top division, with 228 goals in 329 games, behind Hugo Sánchez (234 goals) and Telmo Zarra (251). Di Stéfano is also Real Madrid's highest league goalscorer of all time, with 216 goals in 282 league matches between 1953 and 1964.
Di Stéfano was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004, and is reckoned by many authorities to be among the half-dozen most talented attacking players in soccer's history, on par with George Best, Diego Maradona, Eusébio, Johan Cruijff and Pelé.
During his time as a player, and to this day, Di Stefano is considered by many to be the greatest player of all-time.
Born to a family of Italian immigrants, Di Stéfano's career started with River Plate in Argentina, in 1943. On 1946 he was loaned to Club Atlético Huracán, but returned to River on 1947. Due to a footballer's strike in Argentina on 1949, Di Stéfano went to play for Millonarios of Bogotá. He won six league titles in the first 12 years of his career in Argentina and Colombia.
On 1953, Di Stéfano signed a deal with FC Barcelona and the FIFA authorized the transfer from River Plate, the club that still had his rights, but the Spanish Federation did not. On May 13, 1953, he arrived to Spain to sign his contract with Barcelona but, during the troubles with the Federation, Real Madrid's president Santiago Bernabéu convinced him to sign for them. Additionally, Real Madrid had negotiated with Millonarios.
On September 15, the Spanish Federation made public its decision to allow Di Stéfano four seasons in Spain, two in each team, to be played alternately. Barcelona protested and finally renounced on October 23. The reasons of this decision are different on each side. While the Real Madrid has always maintained it was a voluntary decision of Barcelona, their rivals denounced pressure from the Spanish dictatorial government. This incident exacerbated the traditional enmity between the two clubs. Di Stéfano finally debuted with Madrid on September 23.
With 49 goals in 58 matches, Di Stéfano was for decades the leading scorer in European club football, his record only being surpassed by Madrid's Raúl González in 2005, and AC Milan's Andriy Shevchenko in 2006. 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 witnessed in Europe. He was voted European Footballer of the Year in 1957 and 1959.
He moved to Espanyol in 1964 and played there until hanging up his boots at the age of 40.
Di Stéfano played with three different national teams during his career: he played six times with the Argentinean national team, four times with the Colombian and 31 times with the Spanish national team. However, he never won a World Cup Final.
Alfredo Di Stéfano currently resides in Spain. On November 5, 2000 he was named President of Honour of Real Madrid.
On Saturday December 24, 2005, Di Stefano suffered a heart attack, from which he recovered.
Alfredo Di Stefano also once said of Maradona "Technically, on an individual basis, he is far superior to me in what he can do with a ball; my ability to cover an entire field and versatility is what I hold over him, though with the right training he could easily do the same." An amazing tribute from a man many consider the best of all time - certainly the Spanish do.
On the other hand, Maradona has also had words praising Di Stefano. In comments made to RAI television in 1997, he said, "I don't know if I was a better player than Pelé, but I can say without any doubt that Di Stéfano was better than Pelé. I am proud when one speaks of Di Stéfano.... I can say that Maradona could be worse than Pelé. But I emphasize Di Stéfano was better".
