Top Players Who Never Made A World Cup

Alfredo Di Stefano

Described by Pele as better than a certain El Diego, and yet bizarrely, the Real Madrid legend never played in a World Cup. The reasons though, are more complicated than some of the others above. Born in Argentina, he played for his country, but they didn’t play in the 1950 World Cup. He then became a Colombian international, and never made a World Cup. He became a Spanish National in 1956, but the Spanish didn’t qualify for the 1958 World Cup. Finally he led them to the 1962 Finals, but he got injured before the tournament and couldn’t play.

Eric Cantona

He might have defined the Man United team of the 1990s, but he never made it to a World Cup for France, despite being first capped in the late 1980s. He had fallen out with management before the 1990 World Cup so wasn’t selected for France’s Italian adventure, he was apart of the squad that failed to make the 1994 World Cup, and he retired in 1997, a year before France won the World Cup. He probably wouldn’t have been picked anyway.

Full list is here:

http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-football/top-10-players-who-never-made-a-world-cup.html

Very interesting read though.

Giggs

f**kin Wales......

Don Alfredo never played in a World Cup final.

Argentina refusing to participate in the 1950 world cup made him miss the first one.

For the 1954 World Cup, Argentina did not enter and FIFA declared Di Stéfano was not eligible to play because he had previously been capped by both Argentina and Colombia.

He acquired Spanish citizenship in 1956, and played four World Cup qualifying matches for Spain in 1957, but the team failed to qualify for the 1958 World Cup.

In 1961, Di Stéfano (36) who had already won 5 European Cups, helped Spain qualify for the World Cup of 1962. A muscular injury just before the competition prevented him from playing in the finals. He retired from international football afterwards.

Had he played at least once for Argentina or Spain in the finals I'm pretty sure they would have more stars above their badges.

so it basically means di stefano was disloyal bitch
if argentina didnt refuse to play in WC then brazil wouldnot be proud of being only country to participate in every world cup

Disloyal? How about you read some history before you throw those words around.

Well it kinda does look like stefano was a massie sell with no loyalty to either of those countries although if tere are reasons behind it im all ears.

Although cant really think of an excuse that lets someone off for playin for 3 diff countries without being classified as disloyal

BiasedMilanFan3 wrote:Giggs

f**kin Wales......

His own fault. He had the choice between England and Wales but chose them. He has nobody to blame but himself.

In 1949 Argentina was in a state of general strike that also paralysed professional football. The clubs responded by finishing the season with amateur replacements.

Many professionals sought refuge in foreign leagues. Di Stefano was persuaded to uproot to Colombia, where a wild league was being played ever since the country's FA had cut it's ties with FIFA. So basically Argentina was not giving Don Alfredo a chance to play the game like any where else at the time.

He wanted to play football at all levels, the state Argentina was in (and South America in general) didn't allow him to do it. That explains why he tried to play for Colombia. Playing for Argentina was an option that was cut off from him.

Alfredo di Stefano was voted European Footballer of the Year in 1957 and 1959. He qualified for that title thanks to his having applied for, and subsequently received, Spanish citizenship in 1956, after Real had requested him to do so in order to enable them to field an extra foreign player. Real Madrid asked him to apply and frankly Spain and Don Santiago in particular have done more for Don Alfredo than Argentina has ever done.

As a result Alfredo di Stefano could now represent Spain at the international level. Di Stefano received his passport in october of 1956 and made his debut for Spain in January of 1957, promptly producing a hat-trick against the Netherlands. He scored 23 goals in 31 matches, but never made it to an international tournament with his adopted country.

Spain failed to make it to the 1958 World Cup, finishing second in their qualifying group behind Scotland. In 1960 the Franco regime forbade the team from playing against the Soviet Union, which meant the Spanish were forced to bow out of the inaugural European Championship. And when Spain did manage to qualify for a tournament, the 1962 World Cup, Di Stefano had to pull out with an injury, leaving him with the distinctly unenviable honour of competing with George Best for the title of best footballer never to have played a World Cup.

Hope that clears things up. Don Alfredo was caught up in the perfect storm of bad luck and circumstance. If International football was as simple as it is now I'm 100% sure Don Alfredo would have played for Argentina. Circumstances didn't allow him. He himself is faultless here.

Still disloyal

billionmillion wrote:Still disloyal

loyal to el madrismo tho

Say what you will you're just making wild assumptions without really knowing how or why it happened.

According to you Don Alfredo should have stopped playing football because he should have been loyal to a football federation that wasn't interested in taking part in international football tournaments (or even professional football in general)

omarish wrote:

billionmillion wrote:Still disloyal

loyal to el madrismo tho

Don Alfredo was Madridismo.

Zealous wrote:Say what you will you're just making wild assumptions without really knowing how or why it happened.

According to you Don Alfredo should have stopped playing football because he should have been loyal to a football federation that wasn't interested in taking part in international football tournaments (or even professional football in general)

Ok i do get why he jept changin national teams not that agree with it but i understand.

One thing though if he went from argentina to columbia to spain why did he stop playin for columbia ?

The Colombian FA went rouge and separated from FIFA. Don Alfredo only played 4 games for them.

Spain had no such problems so it was much easier to just play instead of having to deal with FA BS, which is why he has 31 caps for them. Problem was by that time he was already in the twilight of his career.

Fair enough, i mean i do admire his ambition and no doubt was a great player, his history speaks for itself.

But in saying that theres denyin he was disloyal and was simply lookin out for himself due to his ambitions to play on the big stage.

This isnt a knock on him zealous so hope u dnt take it the wrong but yea by all accounts disloyal by the sounds of things it kinda backfired he mights played for argentina when they got there act together but he had already ditched them.

Meh, Argentina are the ones that missed out. Don Alfredo would have added at least one star had he played in a finals for them.

Zealous wrote:Meh, Argentina are the ones that missed out. Don Alfredo would have added at least one star had he played in a finals for them.

Maybe so but that works both ways if he had been loyal he wouldve had the chance eventually to take them there.

Again as i said not a knock on him just sayin u cant really argue with the disloyal thing, i mean he is club great for ur fav club so i get the defending thing.

Really is a shame he didnt end up playin in a wc cup although not for us we wouldnt have been able to watch it anyway but for the fans back then

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