Alfredo Di Stéfano was widely regarded as one of the greatest players to ever grace a football pitch.
His is an incredible story, beginning in Argentina and moving to Colombia before he became embroiled in a tug-of-war between two Spanish giants.
Born in Buenos Aires, he first made his name at River Plate becoming a huge success. He was there at a time of unprecedented success for the club, playing in a team nicknamed La Máquina (the Machine). They won four league titles in seven years.
The core of their success revolved around five forwards, Juan Carlos Muñoz, José Manuel Moreno, Angel Labruna, Félix Loustau and Adolfo Pedernera. River’s coaches then came up with the idea of using left-winger, Pedernera as a withdrawn central striker, a false nine long before people like Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp were even born.
Pedernera was an important character in Di Stéfano’s life. When he was transferred to Atlanta Di Stéfano took his place.
Pedernera didn’t last long as Atlanta were relegated for the first time in their history. He returned to Huracan, where he’d begun his career in their youth team. After a year he was persuaded to join Colombian side, Millonarios.
Colombia had been kicked out of FIFA on account of the Civil War in the country. This allowed clubs to break the rules over signing overseas players. Many were offered large sums of money without their clubs receiving any compensation.
Once Pedernera had agreed terms he then contacted Di Stéfano and another teammate of theirs, Néstor Rossi. River didn’t receive any transfer fee for either player. Millonarios simply offered them a greater salary than they were on in Argentina and then players left willingly.
In four years, Di Stéfano won three league titles with the club scoring 88 goals in 102 appearances.
During his time in Colombia, he played for a Colombia XI, despite not holding a Colombian passport, and FIFA subsequently banned him from playing for Argentina.
In 1951 an agreement was reached to allow Colombia back into FIFA. This meant clubs were allowed to play friendlies against foreign teams. This was all on the proviso the league got rid of all its overseas players.
The agreement allowed Millonarios to embark on a lucrative global tour of Uruguay, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia and then Spain.
In March 1952 Real Madrid organised a tournament to celebrate their 50th anniversary. In Madrid, Di Stéfano was the talk of the town. But Real weren’t the only club interested in him. Barca were also taking note.
Barca chief, Pepe Samitier was keen on signing the Argentinian but there was confusion over who he should be doing business with, Millonarios or River, who still claimed they held his registration.
In the end, they agreed a deal with River only. Millonarios were unhappy with Barca’s bullying tactics and also maintained the player owed them money, so they weren’t going to sanction a move.
After the Spanish Civil War, it was Barcelona, rather than Madrid, which emerged as a powerhouse in Spain. The club won four of the six La Liga titles between 1948-1953.
It wasn’t until 1953-54 that Real won their first La Liga title, 15 years after the end of the Civil War. Gradually the club began to build their finances back up, thanks in no small measure to Santiago Bernabéu. He became president in 1943 and oversaw the expansion of their current stadium. In 1954 it was named after him.
After a tour to Venezuela, Di Stéfano refused to return to Colombia and travelled to Barcelona. With the local press beginning to crow about the capture of the player, negotiations were still up in the air.
Millonarios initially demanded $40,000 but settled on $10,000 plus clearance of the debt the player owed them and a friendly match, where the Colombians would take all the profit.
Barca wouldn’t budge. They wanted to pay just $10,000 and no more.
Barca president, Enric Marti Carreto would later maintain they came under pressure from the General Franco regime.
The Spanish FA passed a law banning the purchase of foreign players. Di Stéfano would escape the ban if Barca dropped their attempts to sign him. Oddly, the two clubs then agreed to share him on a yearly basis for the next four years. FIFA had got involved and through a mediator, he was to play for either club alternately.
The Catalan press was extremely angry, felt Carreto had surrendered in the face of Madrid at a time when Barcelona was in a strong position and appeared to be the player’s first choice.
They demanded Carreto’s resignation. Reluctantly he had to agree.
Nine months of negotiations passed when the new board agreed to let Di Stéfano join Real exclusively. They sold their half-share and Real paid him a huge salary and a bonus twice as much as any other player was on.
He arrived in Madrid towards the end of September 1953, having not played competitively for seven months. He made his debut in the home match against Racing Santander and 10 minutes into the second half he scored. Real won 4-2.
He was on target in three of his first four matches and then just a month into his new career came El Clásico, of course, it did.
As if he was writing his own scripts, Di Stéfano scored the opening goal after just 10 minutes. He then got another with just five minutes to go as Real romped home, 5-0.
As if the fixture list wanted to test his mettle, a week later came the Madrid derby. Once again he opened the scoring, converting a penalty. Atlético soon came back to lead before Di Stéfano levelled things with another penalty before the break. Atlético took the lead again in the second half, before Di Stéfano completed his hat-trick, inspiring his side to a 4-3 win.
Eight goals in his first six matches and no one around the club was questioning the money spent on him. He hit another two hat-tricks as he ended his first season with 27 goals.
Real won their first La Liga title in 21 years, finishing four points ahead of Barcelona.
They retained their title the following year and then in 1956 came the big one. The European Cup had been launched. Real reached the Final, playing Reims in Paris. The French raced into a two-goal lead before Di Stéfano pulled one back. After levelling, Real trailed again before coming back to win 4-3.
This was the first of five successive European Cup wins with Di Stéfano scoring in each Final. This culminated in a hat-trick against Eintracht Frankfurt at Hampden Park in 1960.
Real built a team around him with players of the calibre of Raymond Kopa and Ferenc Puskas joining. In all Di Stéfano played for Real for 11 years, winning eight La Liga titles, one Spanish Cup and of course five consecutive European Cups. He scored 418 goals in 510 matches in all competitions, plus 49 goals in 59 matches in European matches.
Di Stéfano became a Spanish citizen in October 1956, making his debut in the national side a year later. In all he played 31 times for Spain, scoring 23 goals.
Undoubtedly, one of the greatest players to play the game. He was so close to joining Barcelona and is one of the reasons there’s still a fierce rivalry today.
