Sadly passed away on Monday.
Di Stefano, who died on Monday aged 88, never played in a World Cup, but club football belongs to him. The world's two leading international club competitions bear his mark - one obviously and directly, the other indirectly.
Di Stefano was the last great product of the golden age of Argentine football, the 1940s, when he starred for River Plate.
After the big players' strike there in 1948 he was snapped up by Colombia's newly launched league, and helped get the professional game off the ground in that country as the star of the great Millonarios side. And in 1953, at the age of 27, he went to Real Madrid and changed the course of history.
When the European Cup - as the Champions League was then known - was launched in the 1955-56 season there was no guarantee of success. World War II was still very recent, though the continent was rebuilding and starting to pull away from post-war austerity.
The English authorities were sufficiently suspicious of the whole thing to discourage domestic champions Chelsea from taking up their invitation to enter the inaugural version. In hindsight, such an attitude appears ridiculous, because it meant English crowds were missing out on the Di Stefano show.
Bobby Charlton got a close look in 1957, when he watched from the stands in the first leg of the semi-final, Manchester United away to Real Madrid.
"Who is this man?" was Charlton's instant response. "He takes the ball from the goalkeeper; he tells the full-backs what to do; wherever he is on the field he is in position to take the ball; you can see his influence on everything that is happening... I had never seen such a complete footballer.
"It was as though he had set up his own command centre at the heart of the game. He was as strong as he was subtle. The combination of qualities was mesmerising."
Alfredo Di Stefano's honours
Five European Cups
1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960 (Real Madrid)
Eight Spanish leagues
1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964 (Real Madrid)
One Spanish Cup
1962 (Real Madrid)
One Intercontinental Cup
1960 (Real Madrid)
Two Argentine leagues
1945, 1947 (River Plate)
One America Cup
1947 (River Plate)
Four Colombian leagues
1949, 1951, 1952, 1953 (Millonarios Bogota)
All of Europe was going through the same experience. Di Stefano took the game of football to a level the continent had never seen before.
He was not only the driving force behind Real Madrid winning the first five European Cups, he was also chiefly responsible for the quick success of the competition. Everyone wanted to see his Real Madrid side.
Just as had happened after Uruguay won the 1924 Olympics in Paris, some South American talent had set off a fever for the game in Europe. If Leeds United wear white, if there is a club in the US called Real Salt Lake, and if the European Cup was an instant hit, then much of the credit belongs to Di Stefano.
Some would even argue that as the leading light in Real's galaxy, Di Stefano helped improve foreign perceptions of Spain, thus encouraging the tourist boom and consequently hastening the country's integration into mainstream western European politics following the death of the dictator General Franco.
That might well be going too far. But I don't think it is excessive to argue that, without ever intending to, Di Stefano helped bring into life the Copa Libertadores, South America's European Cup equivalent.
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Great story on the bbc about how he joined Barca before Real.
East Terrace Peanuts - was that the game to open the new floodlights at Selhurst, and weren't they a 4th Div team at the time? I remember getting the programme a few years after and wondering why Palace had played Real Madrid?
If the Nigel's got Real Madrid for their game, who did Charlton get for the first floodlit game at the Valley?
It was September 1961, I believe.
Just a mundane Second Division fixture on a Tuesday night.
And here I am sitting at my laptop, and for the life of me, I can't remember who we played right now!
As I've said above, I've got the programme in the attic - but it's in a trunk with 3,000 others.
Bang on Stig. Good memory.
I've found my post from October 2013: