If Real Madrid were to be indebted to one player, it would probably be Alfredo Di Stefano who passed away today aged 88.
During an astonishing career his goals (over 350 during a stellar career) and class helped the club to eight La Liga titles and five European Cups in the 1950s and 60s.
Added to success with River Plate and Colombian side Millonarios, Di Stefano will go down as one of the all-time greats.
Tonight, we were joined by Dr Rogan Taylor of the Football Research Unit at the University of Liverpool and co-author of Puskas on Puskas: The Life and Times of a Footballing Legend to learn more about the player and the man.
"I got to know him through Puskas because I was a friend of his and wrote his biography back in the day. And of course the relationship between Puskas, the greatest player of his period and the then-greatest player in the world was an extremely interesting and fruitful one and led to a great friendship between the two," said Taylor, who described Di Stefano as the main man at Real Madrid and also a somewhat strange character who also played for three international teams: Argentina, Colombia and Spain.
Taylor also discussed the development of the deep-lying number 9 in Hungary and how that would later help Di Stefano and Ferenc Puskas to link up together.
He also discussed how Di Stefano and Puskas' star power helped nurture the early years of the European Cup which has since become the big-money competition we now know as the Champions League.
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