Emotional Spain hails Di Stefano
Print Edition
SPANIARDS flocked to pay homage yesterday to Real Madrid legend Alfredo Di Stefano, one of the world’s greatest footballers who inspired millions of fans during the isolation of the Franco era.
Hundreds of people queued around the block by the towering walls of the club’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium where Di Stefano’s body lay in state, a day after he died following a heart attack, aged 88.
Inside, mourners bowed and crossed themselves as they passed in front of his coffin, which was draped with a white Real flag. The numerous trophies he helped the team win were lined up nearby.
Among yesterday’s mourners, Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos embraced members of the former player’s family, who sat dressed in black in front of big garlands of white flowers.
Known as “the Blonde Arrow”, Di Stefano was a hero of the all-conquering Real sides of the 1950s and 1960s.
Following tributes from sportsmen around the world as well as the Spanish government and royal family, the press called him a “genius”, a “legend” and a “complete player”.
Fans fondly remembered the man who transformed their club into one of the most successful sides in the world.
“I feel cut up. He was the greatest,” said Javier Lopez, 28, waiting in the queue at the stadium in a white Real shirt, with a tattoo of the club’s shield on his arm.
“If it wasn’t for this man, Real Madrid would be nothing. He defended, he directed play and he scored goals.”
Di Stefano had gone into a coma after suffering a heart attack on Saturday. He died on Monday at the Gregorio Maranon Hospital, Real said in a statement.
“He has left us, but his legend will live forever,” Real President Florentino Perez told a news conference on Monday.
Yesterday, leading Madrid sports daily Marca left its cover all white except for a small black-and-white photograph showing the back of a departing Di Stefano wearing his No. 9 shirt, his hand waving.
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