9 Greatest Footballers Of All Time (Who Never Went To A World Cup)

Ask anybody to name some of the greatest players of all time and the likes of Pele and Diego Maradona will inevitably be namedropped. Those with a more in depth knowledge of football history might bring up the likes of Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and Ferenc Puskas.

Whilst all of those men helped stake their claims with stellar performances on the biggest stage of them all there is one name in the conversation that earned his plaudits without ever getting to go to a World Cup (despite representing three countries internationally) - Alfredo Di Stefano.

Di Stefano began life in Argentina, playing six times for the national side in the immediate post-WW2 period. He then made his way to Spain in 1953 via Colombia (for whom he played seven more international matches). There he became known as the centrepiece of the Real Madrid team that dominated European football for the next ten years, scoring in all five of the club's consecutive European Cup Final victories between 1956 and 1960.

After earning Spanish citizenship, Di Stefano missed out on the 1958 World Cup as his newly adopted nation failed to qualify. At the age of 36 he seemed set to finally have a chance to make an appearance in 1962, but picked up an injury before the tournament began and retired shortly afterwards. He has been hailed as one of Real's greatest ever performers (no mean feat given the team's pedigree) ever since.