Alfredo Stéfano di Stéfano Laulhe was one of the best football players in the history of the game and today, July 7, 2014, the world lost him.
On July 4 Alfredo di Stéfano turned 88 years old and just one day later he suffered a massive heart attack on the street in Madrid. The paramedics performed resuscitation on him for 18 minutes and took him to the Hospital Gregorio Maranon in Madrid. They managed to revive him, but he could not gain consciousness and spent the following two days in a deep coma.
Today, July 7 at 17:15, Alfredo Di Stéfano died in the hospital at the age of 88.
He was nicknamed the blond arrow and he is not the fifth highest scorer in the history of Spain Top Division. Throughout his career, Alfredo di Stéfano scored 216 goals between 1953 and 1864, which is quite a feat that not even the best football players today can come close to. He played for Real Madrid and played a very important part in the club’s victorious streak during the ‘50’s and helped the club earn eight Spanish league titles. He ended his 22-year playing career in 1966, at the age of 40.
Alfred Di Stéfano lead an exciting life, filled with countless football victories, hard work, fame and also some movie-worthy thrills and excitement. In 1963 he was kidnapped by the Armed Forces of National Liberation, a Venezuelan revolutionary group. He was held at gunpoint and was released unharmed two days later. Real, the Movie (2005) is the movie that was inspired by the evens. At the release of the movie he got to meet a kidnapped, 42 years since his abduction.
Real Madrid president, Florentino Perez released a statement in which he and the club express their
deepest condolences and all their sympathy and affection for his children, family members and friends.
Di Stéfano’s heart had had a heart condition for years. In December 2005 Alfredo Di Stéfano, a diabetic, had his first heart attack. That year he had a quadruple bypass and a peacemaker implanted.
In March 2004, he was named by Pele as the best Argentinian player ever and Di Stéfano was voted the fourth best player of all times by a French football magazine, behind Pele, Maradona and Cruyff. He was appointed honorary president in 2000 by the city of Madrid and a statue was erected in his honor in 2008.
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