I was browsing Real Madrid's website and came across this page on Di Stefano for which they hail him as the best player in the club's history and possibly best of all time.
I don't know much and Real Madrid's early days but I thought it was wildly considered that Cristiano Ronaldo was the greatest player to don Real Madrid's colours, but this doesn't seem to be the case.
Can someone who knows more about Madrid's history or Di Stefano himself comment on how well these claims holdup?
https://www.realmadrid.com/en-US/the-club/history/football-legends/alfredo-di-stefano-laulhe
I also have no idea he has 5 UCLs and 2 Balon d'ors, if so why is Di Stefano not hailed amount the greats of the game like Zidane, Pele and Maradona?
I don't even see him in all time Real Madrid XIs made by fans. I guess that could be that they're like me and know little of him as a player.
Thank You!
by WalkingCarDriver
8 comments
He was great. Simple as that 🙂
My grandfather spoke very highly of him.
We probably don’t hear more about him these days because you have to be in your late 70s or 80s to have actually seen him play and be old enough to remember it well.
Also, some people say that he’s not as famous as the other legends because he didn’t have much of an international career.
He never won the World Cup, so he isn’t named as often as Pele or Maradona despite being as technically gifted as the two. Could be said the same for other legends of the game like Eusebio.
Most people consider Di Stefano as **the** GOAT Real Madrid player.
In Di Stefano’s first 8 seasons (his prime years), his numbers as a midfielder was insane (247 goals in 299 games). And with him as our best player, we won 5 La Liga titles & 5 straight European’s Cup.
There isn’t a lot of video of that time.
But as madridista (and madrileño), he is considered the best player in the club history, one of the main reasons Real Madrid is Real Madrid and not a Betis or something like that.
I don’t think any of us are equipped to talk about di estefano unless your over 60 there’s no way you can know. Even if your grandfather saw him play you cannot compare players from the 50s to the players from today back them players would smoke during half time today you’d be fired for that so just think about how much better todays players are. I feel like the only comparable players would be from the late 80s
This might give you your answer. The views of a legend.
https://youtu.be/Vxu6om0M0A8?si=aONpMMGUPmq1Qps1
>why is Di Stefano not hailed among the greats of the game like Zidane, Pele and Maradona?
He is, maybe not so much in the anglo world, but definitely in Spain and South America. He’s often considered a top ten, even top 5 player of the 20th century, and probably the third best South American player of the 20th century after Pelé and Maradona. He’s legend of Real Madrid, Argentina and Spain and people who watched him said that he was extraordinary, sadly there’s not much video evidence of this, as he played so long ago.