DI STÉFANO
Megafono | 20/03/1948

The boy was undoubtedly a brilliant talent. Surely, if he had been placed alongside Moreno and Labruna, he would have played as well as he had in that third championship-winning team, where he was the top scorer and star. But, however promising he was, however established he already was, he couldn't displace overnight the dazzling star that Adolfo Pedernera was at the time.

The River Plate centre-forward had found another way to play. And within that style, he was as great as in years past, when inside the opposing penalty area he was an unstoppable force. River had gradually adapted to Pedernera's characteristics. And in those days of 1945, when Alfred Di Stéfano was driving the River Plate fans wild, fans who followed him and already called him "The Golden Boy," Pedernera was the organizing and strategic mastermind. A withdrawn centre-forward. Although it wasn't a new system, he was considered the creator of a "Pedernera-style" system.

How revamped he looked and how well the Argentine champion had adapted to his style of play made the player seem destined for a very long wait. Di Stéfano was the antithesis of that 1945 Pedernera. Fast, aggressive, with all the overwhelming energy of youth, with that irrepressible hunger to score, the ultimate ambition of any aspiring forward.

But they couldn't let him get bored waiting for an opportunity that seemed so distant. That's why River Plate found a splendid solution when Huracán requested him on loan. There, he would adapt to the demands of the First Division. He would develop fully and forget about that shadow that stood in his way. All the objectives were achieved. Di Stéfano fit perfectly into a team like Huracán. He even identified with the club's name. Because that's what the blond center forward was: a hurricane. He unleashed his dynamism. He scored goals. He polished his game.

And then came that sensational River Plate-Pedernera controversy. The star either eased up a bit or increased his value considerably. The fact is, he traded the River Plate jersey for the striped shirt of the modest Atlanta. Then Di Stéfano returned with the maturity gained from a full season with the Huracán team. River had to change its approach. Before, Pedernera played for the others. Now, the others had to play for Di Stéfano. "Pass from Adolfo, goal by Labruna," had been the formula for the River Plate attack in recent years. "Moreno's cut, a sprint, a shot, and a goal by Di Stéfano," became the recipe for success with the addition of the young player to the River Plate squad. In this new formula, all the hallmarks of Di Stéfano's personality are present. It didn't take long for him to win the admiration of all audiences, who, from his debut on River Plate's first team, called him "La Saeta Rubia."

Di Stéfano displayed the same characteristics in the Argentine national team that became South American Champions in Guayaquil: a hunger for goals and the skill to score them. Perhaps some of those verses from Gradin's Dynamic Polyrhythm could also be applied to him:


Fish, acrobat that, at the impetus of the most violent attack,
slips away, arches, floats, no one sees him for a moment,
but like a submarine, he appears with the ball.
Agile, refined, winged,
electric, sudden, delicate, and lightning-fast...


It would have been a shame if Chilean fans had missed out on knowing Di Stéfano. I arrived at the perfect moment, demonstrating in that match against Litoral that the praise he received in Buenos Aires could not be considered exaggerated. And while the superb marking of Ely and Wilson overshadowed him in the most crucial match of the Campeonato de Campeones, he had already lived up to expectations with three extraordinary goals in his debut.

It's worth remembering that Alfredo Di Stéfano is a young player, with a long way to go to reach his full potential. That year at Huracán, that previous season with River Plate's first team, and his international call-up were merely the prelude for someone who, already a spectacle on the pitch, would eventually become one of the greatest talents Argentine football has ever produced.