Alfredo Di Stéfano

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

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 sixth highest scorer in the history of Spain's top division, and places third on Real Madrid's highest league goalscorer of all time. He is Real Madrid's joint second leading goalscorer in the history of El Clásico, alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and behind Lionel Messi.

In Their Own Story

On 14 June 2020, with the Santiago Bernabéu under renovation and the COVID-19 pandemic forcing empty stands, Real Madrid's senior team walked onto the Alfredo Di Stéfano pitch for the first time in a competitive match. Behind closed doors, they faced Eibar and won 3–1. It was the start of a strange season where the reserve team's home became the first team's fortress. Later that year, on 6 September 2020, the Spanish national team played at the Di Stéfano for the first time, beating Ukraine 4–0 in the UEFA Nations League. The stadium had undersoil heating and environmentally friendly solar panels, two television areas, four booths for TV commentators and 10 for radio commentators, plus a media centre for the press.

Reader's Guide

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. 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 recipient. He was also named at 4th in the list of "Greatest male players of the century" by the IFFHS. 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.

Did You Know?

• Di Stéfano never played a single match at the FIFA World Cup during his career.
• He scored the fastest goal in the history of the Argentine championship, after about ten seconds of play, while on loan at Huracán.
• He once played as a goalkeeper for a few minutes in a derby against Boca Juniors, keeping a clean sheet.
• He is the only ever recipient of the Super Ballon d'Or, awarded in 1989.