Statue unveiled of iconic Spanish striker Alfredo di Stefano
SOCCER DAILY
The Argentine-born player, now 81, played for Real Madrid from 1953 to 1963, winning five European Cups and eight Spanish league titles. Honor is bestowed at Real Madrid's training facility.
One of soccer's all-time greats was honored in Spain on Sunday when Real Madrid unveiled a statue of its iconic former striker and current honorary president, Alfredo di Stefano, at its training center at Valdebabas.
The Argentine-born player, now a robust 81, played for Real Madrid from 1953 to 1963, winning five European Cups and eight Spanish league titles in the process and being named European player of the year in 1957 and 1959.
He said that, in his view, the top players in the world today are Argentina's Lionel Messi of Barcelona, Brazil's Kaka of AC Milan and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United.
Di Stefano told Marca, a sports daily, that he felt "incredibly lucky" to have become a professional player and to have enjoyed the success he did. In the Buenos Aires neighborhood of his youth, he said, "there were 40 better players than myself but some opted to study, others had to work, and the rest could not afford to buy boots."
Among those present in Madrid to honor Di Stefano were Joseph "Sepp" Blatter, the president of FIFA, and former French great Michel Platini, now the president of UEFA, who described Di Stefano as "a great among greats."
Blatter used the occasion to announce that there is little likelihood of the sport introducing a ball with a built-in computer chip any time in the next decade.
Experiments have been carried out, with mixed results, to see whether the technology exists hat can determine conclusively whether the entire ball has crossed the goal line -- a subject of infrequent but heated debate in major matches.
But Blatter said the computer chip "is complicated and expensive," and asked: "Is it really worth changing things? The game will lose its fun and no longer be a talking point among fans" if technology eliminates controversial decisions made by referees.
Blatter also revealed that Belgium and the Netherlands have officially submitted a joint bid to stage the 2018 World Cup, the first would-be host to do so.
It was an interesting weekend, to say the least, for Bayern Munich's Italian international striker Luca Toni, who enjoyed a bit of luck on two fronts.
On Saturday, Toni scored a second-half hat trick to power Bayern to a rain-drenched 3-0 victory over Hanover 96 on the road. The win kept the club in first place in the Bundesliga and increased Toni's goal haul to 22 in 26 games since joining the German club last year in a $16-million move from Fiorentina.
