The five greatest players to have never played in the World Cup

Alfredo Di Stefano

Hungarian-born forward Laszlo Kubala (R) juggles with the ball in front of Argentinian-born teammate Alfredo Di Stefano

Arguably the player who put Real Madrid on the map with his goals, Alfredo Di Stefano was, in the eyes of many, the best player to have ever played for Madrid. Whilst he made his name at Madrid, he couldn’t do so in the international stage. Although he appeared for three different teams—Spain, Colombia and Argentina, he never managed to appear in the World Cup finals.

In the 1950 World Cup, Argentina didn’t play and by the time the next World Cup came around, he had played for both Argentina and Colombia, which made him ineligible and thus didn’t take part in the 1954 World Cup. And after acquiring Spanish citizenship, a little while later, the failure of Spain to qualify for the 1958 World Cup meant that yet again, Di Stefano couldn’t feature in the World Cup. And in 1962, when Spain finally did qualify, Di Stefano was injured and thus the greatest club player of his era was forced to call it quits, having never taken part in a World Cup through bad luck and injury.