Richie McCormack

They're not official Colombia games because Colombia, for that period of time, were banned by FIFA because of this outlaw league.

Di Stefano's one of a load of Argentinians that end up there.

He ends up getting a bit tired from his, you know, different tours that they have to do, one of which takes him to the Chamartin at the time, which is what the Bernabeu's called at the time.

For a series of friendlies, one's with Norrköping, another one is with Real Madrid.

He performed so well with Real Madrid, Real actually start courting him.

But it is Barcelona who gain the whip hand and actually succeed in, they think, securing his signature.

What I could find, Franco's involvement in this actually goes back to, or at least Franco's government, goes back to Barcelona's securing of Kubala, the great Hungarian player.

So there was obviously trouble getting him registered.

He had been a defector from Hungary and...

ended up signing for Barcelona via, again, kind of backwards methods.

But one of the things that got that over the line was the Barcelona board's relatively really good relationship with the Franco government, which goes against everything that we've ever been taught about Spanish football and about Barcelona in particular.

But no, Franco doesn't get involved in the Di Stefano case.

I don't want to give too much away about it.

There is talk of initially before he signs for, or before he is able to begin playing football for Barca, of banning foreign players in Spain to put a stop to the Cabalists and the DeStefanos of this world.

There's also a really odd suggestion from the Spanish FA about what they might do with DeStefano while he is in Spain.

And then there's a massive Italian club are somehow thrown into the mix as well.

It is one of the most intriguing transfer sagas you will ever come across because, as I say,

it does so much towards defining the successes, early successes.

Like, Madrid only had a couple of league titles to their name before the Stefano arrives.

They suddenly become a super club afterwards.