Statue unveiled of iconic Spanish striker Alfredo di Stefano

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.

“He has the killer instinct,” said Bayern Coach Ottmar Hitzfeld.

Earlier in the day, thieves broke into Toni’s house near the Italian town of Modena. The World Cup winner’s medal Toni earned with Italy in 2006 was not among the items stolen.

Former Mexico national team coach Manuel Lapuente, who guided Mexico to the final 16 at the 1998 World Cup in France and won the FIFA Confederations Cup the following year, has returned to his old club.

Lapuente, 63, who coached Tigres UANL from 1984 to 1986, was named to the post for the second time last week after resigning as a vice president of Club America to return to coaching.

His second UANL debut, so to speak, was an immediate success. Tigres had lost four of its first six games this season, but with Lapuente at the helm, it tied league leader Chivas de Guadalajara, 0-0, on Saturday night.

North Korea will play host to South Korea in a qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup next month but is balking at allowing South Korea’s flag to be flown or South Korea’s national anthem to be played.

The North Koreans want to see a unified flag and joint anthem, as is done in the Olympics, but has been met by resistance from South Korean officials.

“There is no reason North Korea cannot raise South Korea’s flag and play our anthem,” said Chung Mong-joon, president of the South Koreas soccer federation. “South Korea has allowed North Korea to raise its flag and play its anthem when the two sides played in the South.”

South Korea edged China, 3-2, on Sunday in the East Asian Championship at Chongqing, China, thus keeping intact its 30-year, 27-game streak of never losing to the Chinese. North Korea held Japan to a 1-1 tie in the same event.

grahame.jones@latimes.com