In world football, there has always been a saying of the "five old men", referring to the five superlegends who have made outstanding achievements and contributions in world football, and have a decisive position, namely Di Stefano, Cruyff, Maradona, Pele and Beckenbauer (in no particular order). Now, with the death of "Julius Caesar" Beckenbauer, these five football superstars have all passed away. For many fans with a short playing age, they may not have seen any of them play, and they don't know enough about them, so Brother Bao will review the heroic deeds of the "five elders of the palace" in the past. The first thing to talk about is the legendary superstar of the Champions League five consecutive championships, Real Madrid's "Golden Arrow" Di Stefano.
Di Stefano, born in 1926, started his career with River Plate in Argentina, scoring 27 goals in 30 appearances for River Plate in 1947, helping River Plate win the Argentine league title, and at the same time being the league's top scorer, earning the title of "Golden Arrow". In 1949, Di Stéfano joined the Colombian Millionaires Club on loan, where he won three Colombian Primera Liga titles and twice was the league's top scorer.
In July 1953, Real Madrid defeated Barcelona and signed Di Stéfano from River Plate for 20,000 euros, thus starting the dynasty of the Galacticos. Di Stefano scored 27 goals for Real Madrid in his first season at Real Madrid, winning the top scorer in La Liga and winning the La Liga title for Real Madrid after a long absence. In 1956, Di Stefano scored one goal in the Champions League final, helping Real Madrid defeat Reims 4-3 and win the first Champions League title in Real Madrid's history. In the four seasons that followed, Di Stefano led Real Madrid to miraculously defend the title for four consecutive times, an unprecedented feat of five consecutive Champions League titles. In the following seasons, Real Madrid also reached the Champions League final twice, but unfortunately lost to Benfica and Inter Milan and finished second. Di Stefano made 58 appearances for Real Madrid in the Champions League, scoring 49 goals.
From 1953 to 1964, Di Stefano won 8 La Liga titles, 1 Intercontinental Cup and 1 Copa del Rey in 11 seasons with Real Madrid, in addition to five Champions League titles, and scored 308 goals in 396 appearances for Real Madrid (another version is 269 goals in 354 appearances), and his all-time goal record was broken by Raul and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009 after half a century in the dust.
Di Stefano's international career was even more legendary than his achievements at the club. Di Stefano made his first appearance for Argentina in 1947, scoring six goals in six appearances and winning the Copa America with Argentina, but this became his swan song for the Argentine national team. Di Stéfano obtained Spanish citizenship in 1956 and played for the Spanish national team in 1957, making 31 appearances for Spain, scoring 23 goals. Earlier, Di Stefano also made four unofficial appearances for Colombia. However, it is a pity that Di Stéfano has never played in the World Cup, and due to various infallible reasons, he has missed the World Cup finals four times.
Di Stefano retired from Espanyol in July 1966 and took up the reins the following year as Elche manager, and went on to become manager of Boca Juniors, Valencia, Sporting and River Plate. In July 1982, Di Stéfano became Real Madrid coach for the first time, and he managed Real Madrid for two seasonsFrom November 1990 to March 1991, Di Stéfano was appointed as Real Madrid's firefighting coach again and led the team to win the Spanish Super Cup. It is worth mentioning that Di Stefano has served as the head coach of Valencia three times, the first time he led the team to win the La Liga championship, the second time he led the team to win the European Cup Winners' Cup, and the third time he led the team to win the La Liga championship and promoted to La LigaDi Stefano also coached two rivals, Boca Juniors and River Plate, and led them to win the Argentine league title once.
In terms of personal honors, Di Stéfano has won the top scorer in Colombia, Argentina and Spain many times, and has won the European Ballon d'Or twice in 1957 and 1959, and in 1989, he won the "Super Ballon d'Or" selected by the previous Ballon d'Or winnersIn 2000, FIFA voted the best player of the century, and Di Stefano was ranked second, and in 2011 he was the first to be inducted into the FIFA Hall of Fame. In 2000, Di Stéfano was elected Honorary President of Real Madrid and in 2008 he was named Real Madrid's all-time best player. Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has achieved unparalleled success at Real Madrid, but he can only be ranked second at most among the greatest players in Real Madrid's history as voted by Real Madrid fans, because the first place will always be Di Stefano.
On July 7, 2014, Di Stefano died of a heart attack in Madrid, Spain, at the age of 88.
Note: **From the Internet.
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