REAL Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano, regarded as one of the greatest players of all-time, has died.
The 88-year-old suffered a heart attack on Saturday and had been in an induced coma in Madrid’s Gregorio Maranon hospital.
Real Madrid confirmed the news, saying Di Stefano, their honorary president, died at 17:15 CET (16:15 BST).
The forward won five straight European Cups, scoring in each final between 1956 and 1960.
Sir Bobby Charlton, who played against him for Manchester United, said Di Stefano was one of the best players he ever saw.
“The foot-balling world has lost a great player and a great man,” Charlton, a director at United, said.
“I have many fond memories of my time with Alfredo and feel privileged to be able to call him a good friend.”
Former England captain Jimmy Armfield, a contemporary of Di Stefano, described him as “the all-purpose footballer”.
“He could chase back, he could set the play up, he could score goals and he made other players,” he said. “I think he made them into world-class stars.
“Gento was another big name of Real Madrid at the time and he told me that he thinks Stefano was the greatest footballer he’d ever seen.”
Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said Di Stefano was “the greatest” and recalled seeing his “fantastic balance and poise” as a teenager at Hampden Park in the 1960 European Cup final.
“The amazing thing about that game was that Eintracht Frankfurt had beaten Rangers in the semi-finals and were looked on as gods, but they were annihilated by Real,” he told Sky Sports.
“He was always the focus of Real Madrid, wherever they went.”
Real president Florentino Perez said he and the club’s board would “like to express deepest condolences and all their love and affection to his children, their families and friends”.
The Argentina-born player also won eight Spanish league titles and was voted European player-of-the-year in 1957 and 1959.
He left Real in 1964 at the age of 38, having scored more than 300 goals across 11 seasons.
Di Stefano played at international level for three nations but never appeared at the World Cup.
He won six caps for Argentina and played four times for Colombia during a spell in that country’s league. However, his Colombia caps are not officially recognised by FIFA.
In 1954 FIFA said he could not play for Spain but reversed that decision in 1957 after he gained citizenship and he went on to win 31 caps, scoring 23 goals.
As a manager, Di Stefano led Boca Juniors and River Plate to Argentine league titles, and won La Liga and the Copa del Rey with Valencia.
He had spells at Sporting Lisbon, Rayo Vallecano and Castellon before taking over at Real in 1982.
During his two-year tenure at the Bernabeu, the club were runners-up in five competitions, including the 1983 Cup Winners Cup, in which they lost the final to an Aberdeen side managed by Ferguson.
“I was honoured to be up against him,” Ferguson added. “After the game he was very generous. He said Aberdeen have a team that money can’t buy, a soul and a family spirit. He couldn’t have said any more in praise of a football team.”
Di Stefano managed the club again for five months from 1990, winning the Spanish Super Cup against Barcelona. He then became honorary Real president in 2000.
(BBC Sport)