The Blond Arrow is fighting for his life.
Legendary Spain, Argentina and Real Madrid scorer Alfredo Di Stefano is in an intensive care unit at the Gregorio Marañon hospital in Spain after suffering a heart attack. He is reportedly in critical condition.
Di Stefano won five European Cups with Real Madrid and 13 top-flight championships across three leagues. He also helped Argentina to the 1947 Copa America as a 21-year-old.
From our friends at Soccerly:Di Stefano, who had celebrated his 88th birthday just yesterday, suffered the health crisis near the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, where he was attended by a unit of Samur; a specialized and highly qualified emergency system in Madrid.
After performing CPR for over 18 minutes, medics were able to revitalize Di Stefano. However, his previos health background, which include a previous heart-attack, and advanced age maintain him in a very delicate condition.
The former Argentine & Spanish International is regarded as one of the best players to have stepped on a pitch, having won a long list of individual honors with Real Madrid, River Plate and Millonarios.
It’s very difficult to overstate how big of a playing career Di Stefano had before moving on to become “honorary president” of Real Madrid. The Argentine scored six times in six matches for his birth nation before netting 23 times in 31 matches for Spain.
Di Stefano was an incredible performer at club level, too, scoring 49 goals for River Plate, 90 for Millonarios and 216 for Real Madrid in league play (plus many more in Europe).
He is regarded as perhaps the best player to have never appeared in a World Cup, as Argentina did not participate in 1950 and 1954 and Spain did not qualify in 1958.
