Alfredo Di Stéfano was an outstanding player, the perfect example, back in the fifties, of a player that is called "modern player" even now, that is a player who is able to express the right mix of athletic accomplishments and exceptional technical skills

Born in Buenos Aires, he took his first steps as a player at Sportivo de Barracas, the team of his native neighbourhood, then he moved on to CA River Plate and made his Primera División debut. It was, however, at CA Huracán (25 appearances and 10 goals) that Di Stéfano started showing his great talent.

In 1947 he returned to CA River Plate where he formed an unbeatable defence, called "La Máquina", with Hugo Reyes, José Manuel Moreno, Angel Labruna and Félix Loustau. That extraordinary CA River Plate team won the national title and in the same year Di Stéfano won also the Copa América with the Argentine national selection gaining all the matches but one that ended in a draw. Actually, those were the only six matches (6 goals scored) that he played with the Albicelestes shirt of his country national squad.

In 1949 Di Stéfano left Argentina not to come back to play there any more, ever after his career would unwind only abroad, as it usually happened to the best South American players. He joined Columbian CD Millionarios de Bogotá and with them won 4 national titles in 5 seasons. In those years the Columbian club had the most successful period in its history. The exploits of Di Stéfano and of other great players such as Pedernera, Pini, Pipo Rossi (who formed il "Ballet Azul" with great Alfredo) made the CD Millionarios de Bogotà so famous all over the world that they were invited to play a few friendly matches in Europe in 1952.

Right on the occasion of a tournament played in Madrid legendary madridist president Santiago Bernabeu was struck by that extraordinary player named Di Stéfano, but rival FC Barcelona had been the first ones to notice him. Barça, at that time the best team in Spain, already had an agreement with the player, but the Spanish Federation, reportedly because of Bernabeu's pressure, denied the authorization for the player's transfer. Meanwhile, Bernabeu was able to convince the player, who had even already played a few friendlies with the Blaugranas, to move to Madrid and not to the hated rivals team. That was how the Real Madrid CF president, exploiting his enormous political influence to convince also FC Barcelona president Enric Martí i Carreto (who resigned after that "case") to give up Di Stéfano to him, could have the player considered at that time the best one in the world in his team.

With the "Saeta Rubia" (a nickname due to his speed and to his hair colour that gave also the name to a movie in 1956) arrival Real Madrid CF started an unrepeatable streak of victories, that remained in football history. The fate of Real Madrid CF in Spain changed in their favour (since 1953 they won 8 of the following 10 leagues) and got also a great international success with the incredible number of international victories (5 in the first 5 editions - from 1956 to 1960) in the new-born Champions League (at that time called European Champion Clubs' Cup).
Di Stéfano played at Real Madrid CF till 1964 (he made his last appearance with the club just in the Champions League final lost to Internazionale FC) with unforgettable champions such as Puskás, Kopa, Gento, Santamaria… a real extraordinary team that bewitched the whole world.