For all the excitement of this World Cup and the fêting of the combatants, there always comes a point at which fans cannot help themselves from thinking “what if?”

What if Eusébio had not single-handedly rescued Portugal against North Korea in 1966? What if Pickles the dog had not found the missing trophy? What if Roberto Baggio had scored his penalty in the 1994 final?

And what if Alfredo Di Stéfano had graced the World Cup stage?

I wasn’t there. I never saw him play. But Di Stéfano’s reputation and achievements are the stuff of legend and the only stats missing from his career catalogue are those from the pinnacle of the game.

The 1950s and 1960s when Di Stéfano dominated were a different age, one in which players apparently enjoyed a degree of flexibility when it came to swapping nations.

So Di Stéfano, who passed away this week, played a little for his native Argentina, a bit more for his adopted Spain and a bit in between for Colombia, a spell that has neveré been recognised by Fifa.

His contemporary Ferenc Puskas played for Hungary and later for Spain. The pair of them played for Real Madrid at a time when the club were serial European Cup winners.

But whereas Puskas made his mark on the World Cup, and the 1954 tournament brutally left its mark on him, Di Stéfano was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

His goal-a-game scoring exploits with Argentina came in 1947, a time in history when a world still emerging from global conflict had more pressing concerns than a football World Cup.

When the competition resumed in 1950, Argentina opted out because of a squabble with their Brazilian neighbours and hosts. They withdrew again in 1954 — Argentina have actually abstained from more World Cups than they have won — but by then Di Stéfano had already courted Colombia.

By the time of the 1958 tournament, he was a Spanish citizen, but his new nation were edged out of the qualifying group by Scotland. Argentina, ironically, competed this time.

Di Stéfano is not the only great player to have missed out on the World Cup, but his feat in winning and scoring in five successive European Cup finals from 1956 to 1960 indicates that he was the absentee who was missed the most.

World Cup six-pack

Best left: George Best made 37 starts for Northern Ireland between 1964 and 1977 but was not selected when his country qualified for the World Cup finals in 1982.

Too late for Liam: Liam Brady scored the only goal as Ireland beat Brazil in a friendly in 1987, but had retired from the international game by the time Jack Charlton picked his squad for Italia ’90.

Weah woe: George Weah was voted World Player of the Year in 1995 and later dabbled with the Premier League during spells with Chelsea and Manchester City, but as a Liberia player, he never made it to the World Cup.

Giggs grounded: Ryan Giggs won every honour in the game with Manchester United but remains one of many great Wales players never to have appeared in the World Cup finals.

Cantona’s quip: France coach Didier Deschamps lifted the World Cup for France but was described as a “water carrier” by Eric Cantona, the wayward genius who never appeared in the finals himself.

Bye, bye, Bernd: Bernd Schuster shone for Barcelona and Real Madrid and won the 1980 European Championships with West Germany, but was not selected for the 1982 World Cup finals and retired from international football in 1984 at the age of 24.

Phil Ascough, the author of Never Mind The Penalties — The Ultimate World Cup Quiz Book (foreword by Kevin Kilbane) and Never Mind The Tigers, both published by The History Press, was a senior reporter and sub-editor at The Royal Gazette from 1989 to 1992