🤔 ❓ What if ... Real Madrid did not sign Alfredo di Stefano? | OneFootball

He’s one of the game’s greatest ever players, in the same category as Diego Maradona and Pele.

In 2000 he was voted Real Madrid’s player of the century and given the ‘Super’ Ballon d’Or in 1999 for his contribution to football.

But Alfredo di Stefano very nearly didn’t play for Real Madrid at all.

In fact, he was almost a Barcelona legend instead.

Where it all began

Starting his career at River Plate, Di Stefano was an instant sensation winning the Argentina Primera Division twice – in 1945 and 1947 – as well as the South American Championship – the precursor to today’s Copa Libertadores.

With football in Argentina not yet professional however, Di Stefano – despite being promised to Torino in Italy – moved to Colombia instead and the riches of Millonarios.

Three Colombia championships followed and in 1952 was part of the side that travelled to Spain to take on Real Madrid as part of a mini tournament to open their newly-built Santiago Bernabéu stadium.

The South American outfit won the tournament, with Di Stefano named its best player and a deal was soon struck between the Colombian club and Real Madrid for his signature.

But this is where things get murky.

Because Colombia was considered a ‘rebel league’ at the time – operating outside the Fifa system – Di Stefano’s contract was still, in Fifa’s eyes, with River Plate.

Delegates from Barcelona then travelled to Buenos Aires and struck their own deal for the striker.

Fifa expressed a favourable attitude towards Barcelona about the issue, sanctioning the contract of the player to the Blaugrana.

The Spanish Football Association however, blocked the transfer.

A compromise was then reached – Di Stefano would play for Real Madrid in the 1953/54 and 1955/56 seasons, while he would represent Barcelona in the 1954/55 and 1956/57 campaigns.

It was an unprecedented move that caused an extraordinary amount of discontent amongst Barcelona members and when Di Stefano eventually moved to Madrid and was relatively poor in his first few games, it was decided that the Camp Nou club would sell their half to Los Blancos.

Changing of the guard

That would go on, arguably, to be the worst piece of transfer business ever.

Di Stefano went on to become the best player in the world for almost a decade, becoming one of only three men to appear in all five of Real Madrid’s early European Cup wins.

Di Stefano also scored in every one of those finals, including the remarkable hat-trick over Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960.

The Blonde Arrow would end his career in the Spanish capital having scored a club-record 216 goals in just 262 appearances – numbers only bettered by Raul and Cristiano Ronaldo.

His presence in that famous white shirt established Real Madrid as the leading club in Europe and made them what they are today.

Before his arrival, Real Madrid were the fourth-biggest team in Spain, well behind Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao and even Real Sociedad.

With him leading the line, Los Blancos became the most-recognisable team in sports.

Barcelona meanwhile languished for decades.

It wasn’t until the Dream Team of the early-90s did they truly became a power on the European stage, waiting until 1991 to get their hands on the European Cup.

What next?

It stands to reason that was that move reversed, and were Di Stefano to have played solely for Barcelona, that the Catalan club would have reigned over the continent for a decade or more.

They, not Real Madrid, would become the gold standard and we would not have the same El Clásico that we have today.

Barcelona vs Athletic Bilbao would probably be the biggest game in Spain – Catalunya vs the Basque Country and Real Madrid would be relegated to mid-table also-rans.

There would be no Galacticos, no 13 European Cups, no Cristiano Ronaldo.

A truly sobering thought.