Alfredo Di Stéfano

[weststandhibby]

Sad news of a legend. Hope he makes a full recovery.

[Jonnyboy]

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Sad news of a legend. Hope he makes a full recovery.

Indeed. Legend doesn't do him justice

[Onceinawhile]

Fingers crossed, unfortunately at his age, it's not too likely.

let's face it though, his legend would be half of what it is, if it wasn't for stade reimmes

[CRAZYHIBBY]

Never heard of him

[Onceinawhile]

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Never heard of him

Just the five european cups.

National team[edit] Argentina Copa América: 1947 Club[edit] River Plate Primera División: 1945, 1947 South American Club Championship : 1948 (runner-up) Millonarios Colombian Championship: 1949, 1951, 1952, Copa Colombia: 1953 Pequeña Copa del Mundo de Clubes: 1953 Real Madrid Primera División: 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964 Copa del Rey: 1962 European Cup: 1955–56, 1956–57, 1957–58, 1958–59, 1959–60 Intercontinental Cup: 1960 Or was that a joke?

[monktonharp]

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Indeed. Legend doesn't do him justice

when I was a kid, everybody wanted to be him, in a kick-aboot. we pronounced his name as desti-fano, as we'd never heard /of/foreign languages then.

[Barman Stanton]

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Never heard of him

Wow, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. A Real Madrid legend.

[Sir David Gray]

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Never heard of him

Paris_Tuileries_Garden_Facepalm_statue.jpg

Sometimes it's better to say nothing.

[Mon Dieu4]

He used to own Dundee and was Saddams lawyer

[lord bunberry]

Did he play in the final at Hampden?

[Jonnyboy]

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He used to own Dundee and was Saddams lawyer

Wrong Di Stefano

[Barman Stanton]

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Did he play in the final at Hampden?

Yeah, scored a hat trick. Puskas got the other 4!

[lord bunberry]

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Yeah, scored a hat trick. Puskas got the other 4!

I thought so, it was before my time

Edit was it eintracht Frankfurt they beat

[Mon Dieu4]

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Wrong Di Stefano

Whoooooosh

[monktonharp]

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Yeah, scored a hat trick. Puskas got the other 4!

yup, Ferenc Puskas, another unknown just happened to play at Hampden that day. that was in the days o' diddy teams that won 5 European cups on the trot. played in full white strips, with black boots on 22 feet............... what were they thinking of?

[monktonharp]

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I thought so, it was before my time

Edit was it eintracht Frankfurt they beat

It was Eintracht, your correct and it was 7-3 to Real. unbelievable score and I was too young to be there but surely stuff that legends were made of. fantastic for Scotland's football home to witness it too imho.Di Stefano will live in the memories for a long time and must be Real Madrid's best ever.

[--------]

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when I was a kid, everybody wanted to be him, in a kick-aboot. we pronounced his name as desti-fano, as we'd never heard /of/foreign languages then.

He was simply one of the greatest players ever to grace a football pitch. The argument when I was a kid was whether he was better than Puskas or Puskas was better than him.

Allowing that Puskas scored something like 630 goals in 660 top-flight games - Hungarian League, Spanish League, European Cup and Internationals - a fairly decent career average, I'd say, and allowing that Real Madrid for whom they both play consider Di Stefano the greatest player ever to play for them ...

Allowing that Di Stefano scored over 400 goals in 560 odd games for Real, River Plate, Espanyol, Argentina, Colombia, Spain and others, and at the same time provided the 'assists' for a goodly number of Puskas' goals, that gives a measure of the stature of the player.

There's a DVD of the 1960 European Cup Final at Hampden - Eintracht Frankfurt and Real Madrid. You'll see him playing alongside Puskas. They both scored hat-tricks in a 7-3 win over the team that panned Glasgow Rangers 6-1, 6-3 in the semis. And no, they weren't playing tennis - 12-4 on aggregate was the score. Eintracht were a very good team, streets ahead of anything Scotland could field, but Di Stefano and his mate destroyed them.

I still don't know which of them was the greater player. Just glad I saw them the once.

[gogs_t]

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Whoooooosh

Is this a "whoosh" type of post?

[Forza Fred]

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Did he play in the final at Hampden?

He did, but sadly I think was missing from Real's line up when we beat them 3 years later at Easter Road 2-0

Cue memories of that game from fellow old farts...

[greenpaper55]

Think you are right, he was the only one missing from their line up the night we beat them, i seem to remember Puskas taking a free kick around the Hibs dugout and going close ! of course every year it gets further away.

[Forza Fred]

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Think you are right, he was the only one missing from their line up the night we beat them, i seem to remember Puskas taking a free kick around the Hibs dugout and going close ! of course every year it gets further away.

I was lucky enough to gain entry to Real's dressing room at a trading session the night before...still got the autographs to this day.

Grumpy Jock Stein chased us out eventuall.

[emerald green]

Di Stephano was an Argentinian I think. He played in the historic 5th consecutive European Cup win for Real Madrid at Hampden Park in 1960 in front of a crowd of 127,000 people.

I remember my dad telling me all about it. The football they played was mesmerising. I had an old video tape of the game once.

Frankfurt were no mugs either, destroying the then Glasgow Rangers 12-4 on aggregate in the semi-final. Real beat their old foes Barcelona 6-2 in the other semi.

I see on the news this morning that Real describe Di Stephano as the greatest footballer of all time. Quite a compliment.

[J-C]

One of the greatest players ever to grace a football field, unfortunately his career happened at a time when I was born and just a wee kid, he was the manager of Real Madrid when Aberdeen beat them in the European cup winners final.

[Barman Stanton]

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I thought so, it was before my time

Edit was it eintracht Frankfurt they beat

Indeed it was. Way before my time as well, but being a football geek I like to know such things haha.

[Baader]

One of the greatest ever.

[Jim44]

I remember my first pair of decent football boots. They were endorsed by Puskas, with his signature on the side. They were softish, red-brown leather, low cut in the 'continental' style. Unlike the old ankle high hard leather boots with the leather strap over the kicking area with miles long laces wrapped a hundred times round your ankles and boots. I thought I was the bees knees but, unfortunately, my skills didn't live up to the classy look.

[--------]

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He did, but sadly I think was missing from Real's line up when we beat them 3 years later at Easter Road 2-0

Cue memories of that game from fellow old farts...

Di Stefano had moved on to Espanyol by that time. The fee was about £15,000, I think.

Teams (according to the programme) were:

Hibs: Willie Wilson; John Fraser, John Parke; Pat Stanton, John McNamee, John Baxter; Peter Cormack, Neil Martin, Jim Scott, Willie Hamilton and Eric Stevenson.

Real: Araquistain; Pachin and Miera; Zoco, Santamaria and Muller; Amancio, Ruiz, Grosso, Puskas, and Gento.

There was a story - I don't know whether anyone else here has heard this and I don't know how true it is but it certainly sounds like the boy - that Willie Hamilton was late into the dressing-room that night. The rest of the team were beginning to wonder what Stein had got them into - a couple of hours and they would be playing the great Real Madrid - and the nerves were jangling. They were also beginning to wonder where Willie had got to.

Then Willie walks in - late - and when he did that it usually meant he'd had a few.

Stein looks at him - very suspicious. "Hamilton - are you sober?"

"Yes boss."

"Really?"

"Yes boss."

Long pause.

"REALLY?" says Stein.

"Yes boss," says Willie. "I want to play my best the night. I want Real to realise just what they're missing no having me in their side."

Check the team lists. Willie played in the 10 shirt for Hibs. Real's #10 was Ferenc Puskas.

Pure cheek.

[lapsedhibee]

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Di Stephano was an Argentinian I think.

On 15 September 1953, the Spanish Federation made public the decision, signed by club presidents Martí and Bernabéu, to allow Di Stéfano to play four seasons in Spain – two for FC Barcelona and two for Real Madrid, to be played alternately. The agreement created such a storm of protests by the rest of the Barcelona management and the fans that Martí resigned a week later. The reasons for Barcelona's decision to let the player go to Madrid are disputed by the two clubs. This incident exacerbated the traditional enmity between the two clubs.

Wonder how that arrangement would have worked out

[Mr White]

I didn't realise he represented argentina, colombia and spain at full international level but didn't manage to play in a world cup. Reports now that he is in a stable condition after the heart attack.

[--------]

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I didn't realise he represented argentina, colombia and spain at full international level but didn't manage to play in a world cup. Reports now that he is in a stable condition after the heart attack.

This was at a time when top FIFA officials were notoriously corrupt and open to bribery.

I'm so glad it's not like that nowadays.