MADRID, Spain -- Alfredo Di Stefano, the player Real Madrid has hailed as the most important component in its mid-20th century ascent to becoming a global football powerhouse, has died. He was 88. Real Madrid said in a statement that Di Stefano, its honorary president, died on Monday afternoon at Gregorio Maranon hospital, two days after a heart attack. Di Stefano turned 88 on Friday. The following day, he had a heart attack on a street near Madrids Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. Paramedics were able to resuscitate him after 18 minutes, but he spent the following days in a coma. Renowned for his speed, versatility and strategic grasp of the game, he helped Madrid attain five straight European Champions Cups and was voted European player of the year in 1957 and 59. In a career spanning five clubs in three countries -- Argentina, Colombia and Spain -- from 1945-1966, Di Stefano scored 789 goals in 1,090 matches. In the process he claimed top-scorer status once in the Argentine league, twice in Colombias league and five times in Spain. Only Raul Gonzalez has scored more goals for Real Madrid than Di Stefano, who is often recognized as the clubs first "galactico." However, as FIFA acknowledges on its official website, "statistics will show that Alfredo Di Stefano is one of the worlds greatest ever goal scorers, but the bare facts only tell part of the story." FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Di Stefano "was my favourite player." French great Michel Platini, now president of the footballs European governing body, said Di Stefano was "superb technically, possessed outstanding speed, and was a splendid goal scorer." "Together with his gifted teammates, he helped invent modern football." Those who Di Stefano recall a straight-talking character who believed success on the field came through physical effort and dedication. "I dont want to be idolized, I just want to play. And to do that you have to run and sweat," he said. His modesty in the face of overwhelming sporting success won him the admiration of many. "I think he was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, football player ever," England great Bobby Charlton said. Born July 4, 1926, in the Barracas suburb of Buenos Aires, near the port where British sailors introduced football to Argentina, Di Stefano learned the game in what he called "the academy of the streets." "In our neighbourhood we used to hold major football sessions that went on until it got dark, with everyone playing against each other," he said. "Pope Francis and I went to the same school," Di Stefano said when Jorge Mario Bergoglio was elected pontiff, adding the two likely played together as children. Di Stefanos father, Alfredo, the son of an immigrant from the Italian island of Capri, was a loyal fan of River Plate. De Stefanos mother, Eulalia Laulhe Gilmont, was of French and Irish ancestry. Having trialed successfully for River Plate, he turned professional in 1945, joining Colombias Millonarios six years later. He won six league titles for the two clubs. His turn of speed soon had fans chanting, "Help, here comes the jet-propelled blonde arrow," ("Saeta Rubia," in Spanish) a nickname Di Stefano retained all his life. He played in Spain for the first time in 1952 and dazzled the crowd at a tournament commemorating Real Madrids 50th anniversary, a fateful encounter. Barcelona signed Di Stefano in 1953 after agreeing a transfer with River Plate, but the move was thrown into doubt when Madrid also negotiated his transfer -- with Millonarios. Although the Spanish federation authorized Di Stefano to play half of his four-year contract with each club, Barcelona opted out, alleging pressure from the Madrid-based ruling military dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco. In his first season Di Stefano helped Madrid win its second league title, ending a 21-year drought. Within three years, he helped Madrid lift the inaugural European Cup by scoring in a 4-3 win over Frances Stade Reims. The arrival at Madrid of Hungarian great Ferenc Puskas in 1958 led to an attacking partnership of dynamic effectiveness which allowed the club to retain the European title through to 1960, a record yet to be beaten. Di Stefanos last final in 1960 saw possibly his finest match. Before 127,000 spectators, he scored three times in Madrids 7-3 demolition of Eintracht Frankfurt. The same year, he helped Madrid win the inaugural Intercontinental Cup between European and South American champions with a 5-1 aggregate victory over Uruguays Penarol. He topped the Spanish leagues scoring standings in five of his 11 seasons with Madrid. He scored 49 times in 58 European matches, a record in the competition that stood for more than four decades. Di Stefano left Madrid in 1964 to join Barcelona-based Espanyol for a two-year spell before retiring at age 40. "Football brought me so many beautiful moments. It built my life," said Di Stefano, who also played for Argentina and Spain. But World Cup glory eluded him. Argentina didnt play in 1950 and 54, while Spain didnt qualify in 1958. Di Stefano carried an injury to Chile in 1962 and did not play. So, his only international success was a 1947 Copa America victory with Argentina. In 1963, Di Stefano was held captive by a guerrilla group during Madrids tour of Venezuela. He was taken at gunpoint from his hotel room by the publicity-seeking National Liberation Army Front and released unhurt two days later. As a coach, he led Boca Juniors and River Plate to Argentine league titles, and won the European Cup Winners Cup, the Spanish league title and the Copa del Rey with Valencia. He also managed Madrid between 1982 and 1984. Madrid appointed Di Stefano honorary president in 2000 and erected a statue in his honour in 2008. A diabetic, Di Stefano fought ill-health in old age and underwent a quadruple bypass with a pacemaker implanted in December 2005 after a heart attack. In May 2013 his children asked a court to rule him mentally incapable after he announced plans to marry a woman 50 years his junior. "I dont care that my children are against it," Di Stefano, then 86, said of his plans to marry 36-year-old Gina Gonzalez. His interest in football never diminished. At 86 he still maintained a regular column in Spanish sports newspaper Marca. In it, he revealed that he had missed Pope Francis appointment. "I must confess that while everyone else watched the white smoke live," he wrote. "I was, as always, watching a football game." Marvin Harrison Youth Jersey . New York (16-9-8) took over first place in the Eastern Conference and has the best record in the league with one game remaining. Houstons five-game unbeaten streak was snapped, and the Dynamo (13-11-9) are sixth in the East with one game remaining. Marvin Harrison Jersey . -- Claudio Bieler hadnt scored since early September, and not from the run of play since mid-July. http://www.coltsofficialstore.us/authentic-ben-banogu-colts-jersey/ . has left the San Jose Sharks to become the Boston Bruins director of player personnel. Devin Funchess Womens Jersey . -- John Senden never imagined it would take more than seven years to win again. Malik Hooker Colts Jersey . “The fact that he was willing to do the deal the way we wanted it to be done showed that he wanted me to be a part of something great," Lowry said, noting that Ujiri willingness to sign off on the proposal that both Lowry and his agent presented to the GM was the final straw that convinced him to return.On July 24, 2014, MLS expansion team New York City FC unveiled Frank Lampard as the club’s latest star player, following on from the signing of Spanish striker David Villa. At the time of the announcement, the club and the league went to great lengths to laud the arrival of Lampard as a sign that NYCFC meant business when it came to building their inaugural squad. In their press release, NYCFC stated that Lampard “has signed a two-year contract which starts August 1st (2014), while the player was quoted as saying this: “I am really excited about joining New York City FC and helping to play a real part in building something special in one of the sporting capitals of the world” and “It is a privilege to be able to help make history here in New York City - I just can’t wait to get started and be part of it.” Just two weeks later, the club announced that Lampard would be joining Manchester City – owned by the same group as NYCFC - in England ahead of his debut season in MLS. In that press release, Lampard was quoted as saying this: “Joining up with Manchester City is a fantastic opportunity for me to continue to train and play at the top level and make sure I am in top condition for New York City.” The assumption was that Lampard would be returning to New York at the end of 2014 in order to fully participate in NYCFC’s preseason training camp in the lead up to their first game in MLS. Since joining Manchester City, however, Lampard has made a real impact at the Premier League club – much more so than many would have expected. While he has rarely played a full 90-minute game for City, he has carved out a niche at the club as an impact player who can be relied upon to score goals and swing games in City’s favour when they need a push late on or to solidify the midfield when they need to manage a lead to the final whistle. Lampard’s spell at City has gone so well that City boss Manuel Pellegrini felt the need to extend Lampard’s stay at the club until the end of the Premier League season. There are conflicting reports about how it is even possible for that stay to be extended, as well as the terms under which Lampard initially joined Manchester City. City’s own press release stated the following: “Manchester City can confirm that it has extended Frank Lampard’s contract up to the end of Manchester City’s season, enabling his continued participation in both domestic and European campaigns.” While this may just be a case of the club making a poor choice in wording, there is a big difference between a “contract” and a “loan” in football. A contract implies ownership of a player; a loan implies an agreement between two clubs, whereby the player returns to the club that owns his playing rights at the end of the specified term of the loan. While it was originally reported that Lampard had joined City on loan back in August – as he would have had to do, since it was announced that Lampard’s NYCFC contract started on August 1 – a report from Sports Illustrated journalist Grant Wahl confirmed that this was not the case. According to Wahl’s report, MLS contends “Lampard entered into an agreement with the City Football Group to play under an MLS contract for 2015 and ’16 and to play for Man City until the end of 2014 under a Man City contract. Now that Lampard’s Man City contract has been extended to the end of this season, he will join NYCFC in July and play under an MLS contract.” The entire saga flies in the face of comments made by MLS Commissioner Don Garber in his state of the league address back in December, where he spoke about the league’s perceived lack of transparency.dddddddddddd “We recognize that things aren’t as easy for people to understand as they need to be, explained Garber. We look at the Jermaine Jones situation. We had a mechanism, the only mechanism that we could have put in place, to have Jermaine Jones signed in MLS. There was no other way to do it based on the rules that we have, but the public doesn’t understand our rules and most of the media don’t either. As I did say in 2014, transparency is a priority. Transparency is a big priority in 2015. If Garber is serious about transparency being a priority for the league, then situations like Lampard’s – let alone the “blind draw” that saw US international Jones land in New England - simply cannot be allowed to happen. There is a reason that “the public doesn’t understand our rules and most of the media don’t either” as Garber put it – the league’s rules continue to change. While a single-entity league like MLS is certainly unique in the world of football, it isn’t as difficult to understand as some suggest. If the league wants its fans and media to understand its rules, then MLS needs to start by documenting all of the league rules on the league’s website so that fans and media alike can dissect them. MLS fans are passionate, dedicated supporters and they are being robbed of the chance to invest more of their emotional energy into their teams because the league’s rules – particularly the ones regarding player acquisitions - are unclear, unknown or changing on the fly. Consider allocation money, as an example. Allocation money and how it relates to the league’s salary cap isn’t as complicated as nuclear physics - anyone with even a basic understanding of mathematics can add up a team’s salary expenditures and measure that against the salary cap. What better way to create debate and discussion amongst supporters than to have them quibble over the valuation of a signing or trade? When a team trades a player within the league in exchange for allocation money, fans and media alike should have the opportunity to evaluate that trade based on the amount of allocation money exchanged. The fact that the MLS Players Union publishes the MLS player salaries is an added bonus; it gives fans more information with which to assess the performance and value of players. Opponents will contend that transfer fees are rarely disclosed when a player is bought, sold or traded in the world of football. While this is true, that information almost always makes it into the public forum, usually through an intermediary such as a player agent or reporter. There are positives for both clubs in doing this. The selling club can show its supporters that it is receiving value in exchange for selling one of its star players, while the buying club can show its fans that it is committed to achieving success and is willing to spend the money needed to do so. Fans can judge whether or not their club is providing its fans with an entertaining product given its investment in playing personnel, as well as assess the competency of their club’s management team. It’s also important to consider that MLS is a unique league – something that league executives are quick to point out – and as such, might require a different approach to informing its supporters of how its players move from team to team. One thing is certain, though: keeping fans in the dark will not help MLS grow. If anything, it will drive passionate fans of the beautiful game away from the league, frustrated by the league’s hesitancy to tell fans what is really going on. ' ' '