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Alfredo Di Stéfano Quotes

Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé was an Argentine professional footballer and coach. He is regarded as one of the best footballers of all time, and is best known for his achievements with Real Madrid, where he was instrumental in the club's domination of the European Cup and La Liga during the 1950s. Along with Francisco Gento and José María Zárraga, he was one of only three players to play a part in all five victories, scoring goals in each of the five finals. Di Stéfano played international football mostly for Spain after moving to Madrid, but he also played for Argentina and Colombia.

Di Stéfano, nicknamed "Saeta rubia" , was a powerful, quick, skillful, and prolific forward, with great stamina, tactical versatility, creativity, and vision, who could also play almost anywhere on the pitch. He is currently the sixth highest scorer in the history of Spain's top division, and Real Madrid's third highest league goalscorer of all time, with 216 goals in 282 league matches between 1953 and 1964. He is Madrid's leading goalscorer in the history of El Clásico, alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.In November 2003, to celebrate UEFA's Jubilee, he was selected as the Golden Player of Spain by the Royal Spanish Football Federation as their most outstanding player of the past 50 years. In 2004, he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players . He was voted fourth, behind Pelé, Diego Maradona, and Johan Cruyff, in a vote organized by France Football magazine which consulted their former Ballon d'Or winners to elect the Football Player of the Century.In 2008 Di Stefano was honoured by both UEFA and Real Madrid with a special Presidents award issued by FIFA at a ceremony in Madrid, where a statue was also unveiled. Then UEFA President Michel Platini called Di Stefano "a great amongst the greats" while contemporaries Eusébio and Just Fontaine suggested that he was "the most complete footballer in the history of the game".

✵ 4. July 1926 – 7. July 2014
Alfredo Di Stéfano photo
Alfredo Di Stéfano: 11   quotes 0   likes

Famous Alfredo Di Stéfano Quotes

“I was a forward, and one of the obligations of a forward is to score goals.”

Alfredo Di Stéfano

The Wit and Wisdom of Alfredo Di Stéfano Kindle Location 192.

“I've always been a team player, that's all. One for all and all for one.”

Alfredo Di Stéfano

The Guardian interview (2008)

“People nowadays are obsessed with golden awards, about who is the best — when we know in reality the one with more money wins.”

Alfredo Di Stéfano

The Guardian interview (2008)

“Failure is a necessary part of success.”

Alfredo Di Stéfano

The Wit and Wisdom of Alfredo Di Stéfano Kindle Location 98.

“I always wanted to have the ball for myself; she was my girlfriend.”

Alfredo Di Stéfano

Attributed in The Wit and Wisdom of Alfredo Di Stéfano Kindle Location 194, this is actually a quote of José Manuel Moreno, as quoted in "Training, sweating and learning" by Marcela Mora y Araujo, in The Guardian (10 June 2008) http://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/jun/10/distefano.
Misattributed

“We must always strive to improve, little by little.”

Alfredo Di Stéfano

The Guardian interview (2008)

Alfredo Di Stéfano Quotes

“Do you know how many rules there are in football? … There are 17 rules. That's it. Everyone talks about football and nobody remembers this simple fact.”

Alfredo Di Stéfano

The Guardian interview (2008)

Football

“Ball is made of leather, leather comes from cows, cows eat grass, and there is where the ball must be.”

Alfredo Di Stéfano

The Wit and Wisdom of Alfredo Di Stéfano Kindle Location 71.

Grass

“Finals are not to be played; they are to be won.”

Alfredo Di Stéfano

The Wit and Wisdom of Alfredo Di Stéfano Kindle Location 94.

“It has changed a bit, of course. The speed and all that. But let me tell you something: in the olden times, let's say the year, I don't know, in the Sixties for instance, we would eat a plate of spaghetti and run out onto the pitch. Then people started saying 'they're too full', meaning you'd get bloated like a pig if you ate spaghetti. But this shows you those guys were clever because nowadays all the medical experts recommend pasta for athletes and footballers because you digest it slowly.”

Alfredo Di Stéfano

The Guardian interview (2008)

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