5 great players who never played at the World Cup

#1 Alfredo Di Stefano (Argentina and Spain)

The Real Madrid legend played for two countries at the international level.

Nationality: Argentina

Countries represented at the international level: Argentina, Spain

International Caps: Spain - 31 (1957-1961), Argentina - 6 (1947)

International Goals: Spain - 23 goals, Argentina - 6 goals

International trophies won: Argentina - Copa America.

The only player on this list to have represented two countries at the international level (he is also considered to have played for Colombian national team, but reports suggest it was not an internationally declared team), Di Stefano has been nothing short of a legend for Real Madrid. Winning 5 consecutive European Cups from 1955-1960 and scoring in all of them, he was instrumental in the club's domination of the European Champions' Cup and La Liga during the 1950s.

Internationally, the Blond Arrow (as he was fondly called) played with two different national teams during his career: he played six times with the Argentine national team, and 31 times with the Spanish national team, scoring 23 goals.

He also played four times with Colombia XI, a team which was formed by few best players of the Di Mayor league tournament, often mistaken for Colombian international matches (Colombia XI is not even recognized by FIFA).

The first World Cup tournament he would have played in was the 1950 tournament, but as Argentina decided against participating, a 24-year old di Stefano missed his very first chance of participating in the World Cup.

Four years later, again Argentina chose not to participate in the 1954 World Cup. In 1956, owing to requests from Real Madrid for fielding an international player, Di Stéfano acquired Spanish citizenship and made his debut for the Spanish national team on 30 January 1957 in a friendly in Madrid, scoring a hat-trick in a 5–1 win.

However, a year later, Spain failed to qualify for the 1958 World Cup. In 1961, Di Stéfano (now, 36) having already won 5 European Cups with Real Madrid, helped Spain to qualify for the World Cup of 1962. But unfortunately, a muscular injury right before the competition prevented him from participating. With age catching up to him, Di Stefano finally hung up his boots and is arguably the greatest player ever to never play in the world cup.