Don Alfredo Di Stefano has passed away at the age of 88

So sad.

RIP

RIP. Football Greats

RIP   

A little bit of Real Madrid died with his passing but thanks to him, Real Madrid will live forever.

RIP Don Alfredo.

Florentino Pérez appeared before the media in the president’s box in the Santiago Bernabéu. The president of Real Madrid stated, after the death of the best player of all time, Alfredo Di Stéfano: “Thank you all for attending. Today is a day that we thought would never arrive. A day of absolute sadness for Real Madrid and for the entire footballing world.

First of all, I would like to express, on Real Madrid’s and my own behalf, the most profound regret at the passing of our honorary president, Alfredo Di Stéfano, and pass on our compassion and affection to his family, especially his children, his colleagues and his friends.

We have lost the greatest player in the history of Real Madrid and the best footballer of all time. Today, Real Madrid and all of its fans around the world are feeling great sadness and regret. The player who first pulled on a white shirt on 23 September 1953 in this stadium has left us, although his legend will live on for an eternity.

Today is also a time of thanks. Because Alfredo Di Stéfano changed the history of this club and also changed the history of football. He helped transform Real Madrid and made it the biggest sporting institution in the world. Alfredo Di Stéfano is Real Madrid. His alliance with this club allowed the greatest legend in football to be created. He was decisive, he was determinant, he changed the destiny of this institution.

When this country was going through other difficulties, Alfredo Di Stéfano and his teammates became the biggest creators of dreams. And, together with our president Santiago Bernabéu, he created a football club that is admired on every continent. He was the forefather of a universal affection. With his talent and his insurmountable capacity for sacrifice, he was capable of spreading his passion for Real Madrid to every corner of the planet.

Thank you, dear Alfredo Di Stéfano for making Real Madrid the most beloved and admired football club in the world. I would like you all to understand that this is not an easy day for anyone who forms part of this club and especially for me, because he was also my friend. I have experienced many great things with him. Imagine what it has meant to me as president to experience these years with the player who I have always considered to be the best of all time.



We have lost greatest player in the history of Real Madrid and the best footballer of all time.


Because Alfredo Di Stéfano was the best at everything. In the way he revolutionised football and also the ethical code he left on the pitch. He taught us to never give in and to give everything for this club. In addition, until his final days he spoke of his teammates and the team as a fundamental part of his success. And Alfredo Di Stéfano did all this with gratitude and convinced that without them nothing would have been the same.

Many of the values of Real Madrid, of which as fans of the club we feel so proud, are those that guided the generation captained by Alfredo Di Stéfano. For all this time he has been our club’s best ambassador. He gave a lot to our club, but he has also given a lot to our city, to Spain and to the world of football.

Now it is our duty to tell those who never had the opportunity to see him, that once there was a Real Madrid football player who managed to change everything. A player who won five consecutive European Cups, eight Ligas, the first ever Intercontinental Cup, who was the league’s top goal-scorer five times, who won two Ballon d’Ors and who is the only player to have received a Super Ballon d’Or.

He is a man who always wanted more and resisted defeat like no other. Thanks to him, FIFA named Real Madrid the Best Club of the 20th Century. The image of Alfredo Di Stéfano collecting that award in Rome, in the year 2000, was also recognition of his life and accompanying him at the event was one of my most emotional moments as the president of Real Madrid.

He was with us at all the important events in the history of our club. It was he who laid the first stone at the Ciudad Real Madrid, he presented all the great players when they joined our team and has always guided us and made sure we did not lose our way.

I would like to announce that the Santiago Bernabéu will host Alfredo Di Stéfano’s public viewing at 10:30 tomorrow. This stadium was his factory, his sacred ground, his home and his life and it is here, by his express wish and that of his entire family, where we will give him the homage he deserves.

Today is a profoundly sad day for us, but also one of respect and admiration for this legendary man who guided us for so many years. He came here to stay and his time at the heart of Real Madrid is eternal.

Alfredo Di Stéfano, honorary president, Real Madrid will never forget you.

Thank you very much”.

The words of Florentino Pérez were followed by an emotional video showing some of the greatest moments of Alfredo Di Stéfano’s life with Real Madrid, both on and off the pitch. Federico Fernandez Tapias, first vice-president; Enrique Sánchez, secretary of the Board of Directors; and Emilio Butragueño, the club’s director of Institutional Relations, among others, were also present.

The stories i have heard alone makes him an all time great, wish i could have seen him play.

RIP.

WHAT THEY SAID

Why he was the best...
"Alfredo Di Stéfano was the greatest footballer of all time - far better even than Pelé. He was, simultaneously, the anchor in defence, the playmaker in midfield, and the most dangerous marksman in attack."
(Helenio Herrera, former coach of the Internazionale team and one of the greatest coaches of all time.)

Comparing him with the best...
"I don't know if I had been 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. Pelé would have flopped had he played in Europe, whereas Alfredo has played very well throughout the world. I can say that Maradona could be worse than Pelé. But I emphasize Di Stéfano was better".
(Diego Maradona, former Argentina superstar told RAI, the Italian national television, in 1997.)

His extraordinary versatility...
"The greatness of Di Stéfano was that, with him in your side, you had two players in every position."
(Miguel Muñoz, Di Stéfano's coach at Real Madrid and the most successful coach produced by Spain.)

His leadership and tactical brilliance...
"No other player so effectively combined individual expertise with an all-embracing ability to organize a team to play to his command. He was "total soccer" personified before the term had been invented. Di Stéfano remains to many of us the Greatest Footballer of All Time."
(Keir Radnedge, editor of the World Soccer magazine, and perhaps the world's most respected soccer journalist)

Legacy he left behind...
"In Madrid, the field at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium leans to the left because Alfredo Di Stéfano had played so much on this side."
(The Spanish Press tried describing the extraordinary impact he made at Real Madrid.)

His revolutionary playing style...
"He revolutionised forward play by his box-to-box mobility, his willingness to tackle back and his mastery of the attacking arts - shooting, close control, heading power and an eye for the most telling pass. A perfect footballer."
(Mike Langley, famous European soccer journalist.)

His place in world soccer...
"He is arguably the best post-war player and possibly the greatest of all time. His phenomenal stamina enabled him to play flat-out for 90 minutes - a quality that was beyond even the genius of Pele. He had the body and the brain to allow the game to flow through him."
(Graham Hart, editor of the Guiness Football Encyclopedia.)

His significance in the greatest club competition...
"To his strength, stamina and electric change of pace, Di Stéfano allied superb ball control on which he put a premium. He score goals in superabundance yet made so many for others. If there was a King in the European Cup, it was surely Alfredo Di Stéfano."
(Brian Glanville, one of the world's most famous soccer writer.)

Impact he made in a game...
"The greatest all-round player of them all, he was a revelation in his inexhaustible ability to be everywhere on the field, scoring a goal one minute, making a crucial defensive play the next, always at the heart of the game."
(Paul Gardner, top soccer writer and TV commentator in USA.)

His greatness in soccer...
"No one man can make a team, yet Alfredo Di Stefano came as close to being a whole team as any soccer player in the history of the game."
(The Lincoln Library of Sports Champions, the Frontier Press Company, 1989.)

His uniqueness compared to others...
"Di Stéfano's ability to perform all tasks on the field elevated him above the stature of other great players."
(Richard Henshaw, editor of the Encyclopedia of World Soccer.)

His technical excellence...
"In the opinion of many good judges, the greatest all-round player of all. A center-forward who could not only score goals, but would glide all over the field, doing any job that has to be done with total assurance."
(Steve Tongue, author of World Football.)

Secret of his success...
"Di Stéfano was a great player and saw things others didn't see. He knew the game back to front and was always physically and mentally well-prepared. Di Stéfano ranks among the greatest players for me."
(Ferenc Puskás)

Impact he made in Spain...
"He made a lot more money than us but he contributed even more. It is difficult to imagine what Real Madrid would be like without him."
(Franscico Gento, former teammate of Di Stéfano. Real have not won a single Spanish Championship before the Argentine's arrival. Now they have 27. And they have won the Champion's Cup only twice since he retired.)

His greatness...
"When Madrid fans said I was the heir to Di Stefano's role in the Real team, I was more apprehensive than pleased. For Di Stefano was the greatest player I have ever seen. The things he did in a match will never be equalled."
(Luis Del Sol, Di Stéfano's former teammate and later a star of Juventus in the 60's.)

His contribution to Real Madrid...
"Part of this success must be attributed to Di Stéfano. We will never be able to thank him enough for all he has done for Real Madrid. Di Stéfano will always be in our hearts."
(Sanz, Real Madrid president, commented on FIFA's naming them as the greatest club team of the century.)

His standards in contemporary terms...
"Ronaldo is playing extremely well at the moment, but it will be years before he reaches the level of a Pelé or Di Stéfano."
(Johan Cruyff, former player and world-famous soccer star, after Ronaldo scored, in 1996, the most hyped European league goal of the decade.)



WHAT HE SAID

The Importance of Goals...
"A soccer game without goals is like an afternoon without sunshine." - Di Stéfano.

His playing style...
"We are all footballers, and as such should be able to perform competently in all 11 positions." - Di Stéfano.

What footballer he admires...
"The best player I saw in my life was Adolfo Pedernera. Undoubtedly Maradona was exceptional, fantastic. The best for years. One can also not ignore Pelé. For heaven's sake, although it is difficult to make comparisons, Pedernera was a very complete player who can play in the whole pitch." - Di Stéfano.

What soccer meant to him...
"The ball gave me prestige, gave me fame, gave me riches. Thank you, my old friend. Because the ball I have a wonderful family, I have a son that plays soccer..." - Di Stéfano.

Why he had one of the most powerful left-footed shots
"I was right-footed, so my father didn't let me play unless I would shoot the ball with my left foot." - Di Stéfano.

Rest in peace, it is a sad day for world football.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Br-3v2xCAAAQNjc.jpg

Sir Alex Ferguson has paid tribute to the late Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano who passed away yesterday evening at the age of 88.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, Ferguson called Di Stefano ‘a truly, truly wonderful footballer’ and praised his ‘wonderful balance, poise, beautiful movement and grace’.

Ferguson was present for the famous European Cup final at Hampden Park in 1960 in which Real Madrid won 7-3 against Eintracht Frankfurt with Di Stefano scoring a hat-trick.

The former Man United manager recalled his most famous meeting with Di Stefano, when his Aberdeen clashed with Di Stefano’s Real Madrid in the 1983 European Cup Winners Final.

In quotes provided by Sky Sports, Ferguson recalled meeting an idol of his: “But my greatest memory is Aberdeen beating Real Madrid in the Cup Winners’ Cup final in 1983. He was the coach at the time.

“It was an honour to come up against Di Stefano. What I did, out of respect for him, was I bought a bottle of Scottish Malt whisky and gave it to him the night before the match when the two teams had an opportunity to train on the pitch at the venue for the final.

“We were second, they were first. When he came off, they were coming down the tunnel and I said ‘Mr Di Stefano, I’d like to give you this gift.’ He was taken aback, he was really taken aback.

“He didn’t know what I was saying of course – I don’t speak Spanish, he doesn’t speak English. But there was an accord there – he was grateful.

“They were household names. But Aberdeen were a team on the rise, all brought up at Aberdeen, all Scottish lads. It was an amazing achievement. And after the game he was very, very generous.

“He said, ‘Aberdeen are a team that money can’t buy. They have a soul, and a family spirit’. Those words – you couldn’t say any more, in terms of praise for a football team. It was very generous of him.

RIP - Wish I could have seen the man play in the flesh.

Greatest player to play for real Madrid...Real Madrid has a before Di Stefano and After Di Stefano....an excerpt from phill ball's "the white storm: 101 years of Real Madrid". Real Madrid vs Servette of Geneva in the 1955 European cup...0-0 at half time
" The Madrid dressing room was apparently suffering one of its occasional silences, because Di Stefano was in a bad mood. The game had been messy , with no real pattern, and he had been unable to stamp his authority on the proceedings. Terrified of upsetting him, no one spoke. Suddenly the door opened and in walked the exiled Prince of Asturias, (later to become Spanish King , Juan Carlos). The Prince was at finishing school in Switzerland and had taken the day off to see some of his compatriots. The players shot to their feet, apart from Di Stefano. The prince walked over to the Argentine, shook his hand (upon which he stood up)and remarked in his faltering Spanish 'Saeta- los emigrantes esperan una victoria' (Blond Arrow- the emigrants are hoping for a win)- referring to the royal family. Di Stefano unmoved by the royal presence, simply nodded. The 17 year old prince, desperately trying to break the ice, came up with the famous phrase referring to Di Stefano : 'ese chico ahora es el rey' (now this guy is the king).
In the second half, in the 74th minute to be precise, Miguel Munoz scored Madrid's first ever goal in Europe, and Rial the second in the 89th. There was no reply from the obsessively defensive Swiss. In the second leg, Servette were shown the door in no uncertain terms, and the Bernabeau (then Charmartin) witnessed a historic 5-0 demolition of the visitors, a presage of things to come. Another ominous sign for the other teams competing was that Di Stefano had opened his European account scoring two of the goals. So far so good".

Phill Ball. "The White Storm:101 years of Real Madrid". Pages 117-118.

He was so young too, could have at least hit a 100

Mainly tears from my ultra madridista heart. I love you Don Alfredo, we the young men will keep your legend alive

One of the GOATS and a major reason why football is the global popular game it is today.The Champions League is the tournament it is today,the best in the world,in large part because of him.Dont think we will see a player and personality like him again.He was to Maddrid what Cruyff is to Barcelona.
Respects and RIP.