Real Madrid and Spain national team icon Alfredo Di Stefano is widely regarded as one of the best strikers of all time, while some even consider the ex-forward one of the greatest players to ever grace the beautiful game.
Di Stefano was instrumental in Real Madrid’s dominant era in the 1950s and 1960s, leading them to eight La Liga titles and five European Cups, while also winning a plethora of individual honours, including two Ballon d’Ors and five Pichichi Trophies.
While he was an outstanding goalscorer himself, with 306 career goals for Real Madrid and another 23 for the Spain national team, Di Stefano never lacked admiration for his footballing peers and once named a fellow forward as ‘the best player ever’.
The eight-time Spanish champion picked a former World Cup winner over both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who he said were ‘both great players with specific qualities’.
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Alfredo Di Stefano Praises Pele
As the ‘best player’ in the history of football
Pele lifting the World Cup trophy.
Photo courtesy of Reuters.
Di Stefano once named Brazil icon Pele as ‘the best player ever’ and claimed the fellow forward was even better than Messi and Ronaldo:
“The best player ever? Pele. (Lionel) Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are both great players with specific qualities, but Pele was better.”
Pele is widely considered one of the greatest footballers of all time and was among the most successful and popular sports figures of the 20th century.
The former centre-forward rose to global prominence at just 17 years old when he helped Brazil win the 1958 World Cup, scoring six goals in the tournament, including two in the final against Sweden.
Pele would go on to lift the trophy twice more – in 1962 and 1970 – and still remains the only player in history to win three World Cups.
He spent the majority of his club career at Brazilian side Santos, where he played for almost two decades and scored a staggering 643 goals, winning numerous domestic and international titles, including two Copa Libertadores and five Brazilian championships.
Pele played for North American Soccer League side New York Cosmos in the final two seasons of his career and saw multiple legendary players follow him to the club, including Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto and Giorgio Chinaglia.
|Pele's Senior Career Stats (1956-1977)|
|Team|Appearances|Goals|
|---|
|Santos|659|643|
|New York Cosmos|64|37|
After hanging up his boots in 1977, Pele became a global ambassador for football and worked closely with organisations such as FIFA and UNESCO to promote the sport worldwide.
He also served as Brazil’s Minister of Sport for three years from 1995 to 1998 and pushed for anti-corruption reforms in Brazilian football, including the famous Pele Law, introduced to increase transparency and protect the rights of players.
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Statistics courtesy ofTransfermarkt. Correct as of 29-05-25.