Dutch footballer and manager (1947–2016)"Cruyff" redirects here. For Johan Cruyff's son, see Jordi Cruyff.

*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Hendrik Johannes Cruijff OON (Dutch:: , internationally known as Johan Cruyff; 25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016) was a Dutch professional football player and manager. As a player, he won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974. Cruyff was a proponent of the football philosophy known as Total Football explored by Rinus Michels, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, as well as one of its best managers ever.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dutch football rose from a semi-professional and obscure level to become a powerhouse in the sport. Cruyff led the Netherlands to the final of the 1974 FIFA World Cup and received the Golden Ball as player of the tournament. At the 1974 finals, he executed a feint that subsequently was named after him, the "Cruyff Turn", a move widely replicated in the modern game. After finishing third in UEFA Euro 1976, Cruyff refused to play in the 1978 World Cup after a kidnapping attempt targeting him and his family in their Barcelona home dissuaded him from football. At club level, Cruyff started his career at Ajax, where he won eight Eredivisie *les, three European Cups and one Intercontinental Cup. In 1973, he moved to Barcelona for a world record transfer fee, helping the team win La Liga in his first season and was named European Footballer of the Year. After retiring from playing in 1984, Cruyff became highly successful as manager of Ajax and later Barcelona; he remained an influential advisor to both clubs after his coaching tenures. His son Jordi also played football professionally.

Wearing the number 14 jersey since 1970 (except at Barcelona and Feyenoord where he was *igned number 9 and 10 respectively), Cruyff set a trend for players to, if allowed, choose a jersey number outside the usual starting line-up of one to eleven. In 1999, Cruyff was voted European Player of the Century in an election held by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics, and came second behind Pelé in their World Player of the Century poll. He came third in a vote organised by the French magazine France Football consulting their former Ballon d'Or winners to elect their Football Player of the Century. He was included in the World Team of the 20th Century in 1998, the FIFA World Cup Dream Team in 2002, and in 2004 was named in the FIFA 100 list of the world's greatest living players.

Considered to be one of the most influential figures in football history, Cruyff's style of play and football philosophy has influenced managers and players alike. Ajax and Barcelona are among the clubs that have developed youth academies based on Cruyff's coaching methods. His coaching philosophy helped lay the foundations for the revival of Ajax's international successes in the 1990s, and Spanish football's successes at both club and international levels during the years 2008 to 2012 have been cited as evidence of Cruyff's impact on contemporary football. And in Johan Neeskens's own words, "If you look at the greatest players in history, most of them couldn't coach. If you look at the greatest coaches in history, most of them were not great players. Johan Cruyff did both – and in such an exhilarating style."

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Club career
  • 2.1 Gloria Ajax and the golden era of Total Football
  • 2.2 Barcelona and the first La Liga *le in 14 years
  • 2.3 Brief retirement and spells in the United States
  • 2.4 Return to Spain with Levante
  • 2.5 Second spell at Ajax
  • 2.6 Final season at Feyenoord and retirement
• 3 International career
  • 3.1 The Clockwork Orange of the early 1970s
  • 3.2 After 1976
• 4 Coaching career
  • 4.1 Entry into management with Ajax
  • 4.2 Return to Barcelona as manager and building the Dream Team
  • 4.3 Catalonia national team
• 5 Other football-related activities
  • 5.1 As a technical advisor
    • 5.1.1 Unofficial advisor to Barcelona president Joan Laporta
    • 5.1.2 Return to Ajax as technical director
    • 5.1.3 Technical advisor for Chivas Guadalajara
  • 5.2 Amb*ador for Belgium and the Netherlands joint bid to host the World Cup
• 6 Style of play and views on the game
  • 6.1 The total footballer
  • 6.2 Win-with-style philosophy (Importance of style and iden*y in football)
  • 6.3 Cruyff's favourite world XI
  • 6.4 Cruyff's 14 rules
• 7 Influence and legacy
  • 7.1 As a player
  • 7.2 As a coach/manager
  • 7.3 As an ideologue
  • 7.4 Named after Cruyff/Cruijff
  • 7.5 In popular culture
• 8 Nicknames
• 9 Outside football
  • 9.1 Hobbies
  • 9.2 Business ventures
  • 9.3 Writing
• 10 Philanthropy
• 11 Personality
  • 11.1 Jersey number 14
  • 11.2 Relations with others
  • 11.3 Criticism
• 12 Personal life
• 13 Religious views
• 14 Quotes
• 15 Illness, death and tributes
• 16 Career statistics
  • 16.1 Club
  • 16.2 International
• 17 Managerial statistics
• 18 Honours
  • 18.1 Player
  • 18.2 Manager
  • 18.3 Individual
  • 18.4 Orders and further honours
• 19 Bibliography
• 20 Filmography
• 21 See also
• 22 References
• 23 External links

Early life

I was born shortly after the war, though, and was taught not to just accept anything.

—Cruyff said in a do*entary on TV3 channel (2015).

Hendrik Johannes "Johan" Cruyff was born on 25 April 1947 in the Burgerziekenhuis hospital in Amsterdam. He grew up on a street five minutes away from Ajax's stadium, his first football club. Johan was the second son of Herm* Cornelis Cruijff and Petronella Bernarda Draaijer, from a humble, working-cl* background in east Amsterdam. Cruyff, encouraged by his influential football-loving father and his close proximity in Akkerstraat Stadium, played football with his schoolmates and older brother, Henny, whenever he could, and idolised the prolific Dutch dribbler, Faas Wilkes.

In 1959, Cruyff's father died from a heart attack. His father's death had a major impact on his mentality. As Cruyff recalled, in celebration of his 50th birthday, "My father died when I was just 12 and he was 45. From that day the feeling crept stronger over me that I would die at the same age and, when I had serious heart problems when I reached 45, I thought: 'This is it.' Only medical science, which was not available to help my father, kept me alive." Viewing a potential football career as a way of paying tribute to his father, the death inspired the strong-willed Cruyff, who also frequently visited the burial site at Oosterbegraafplaats. His mother began working at Ajax as a cleaner, deciding that she could no longer carry on at the grocer without her husband, and in the future, this made Cruyff near-obsessed with financial security but also gave him an appreciation for player aids. His mother soon met her second husband, Henk Angel, a field hand at Ajax who proved a key influence in Cruyff's life.

Club career

Gloria Ajax and the golden era of Total Football

See also: Gloria Ajax (AFC Ajax) and Total Football (Totaalvoetbal) Cruyff was instrumental in Ajax's dominance of European football in the early 1970s. He played for Ajax from 1957 to 1973 and 1981 to 1983 (seen here in 1967 against Feyenoord).

Cruyff joined the Ajax youth system on his tenth birthday. Cruyff and his friends would frequently visit a "playground" in their neighbourhood and Ajax youth coach Jany van der Veen, who lived close by, noticed Cruyff's talent and decided to offer him a place at Ajax without a formal trial. He made his first team debut on 15 November 1964 in the Eredivisie, against GVAV, scoring the only goal for Ajax in a 3–1 defeat. That year, Ajax finished in their lowest position since the establishment of professional football, in 13th. Cruyff really started to make an impression in the 1965–66 season and established himself as a regular first team player after scoring two goals against DWS in the Olympic stadium on 24 October 1965 in a 2–0 victory. In the seven games that winter, he scored eight times and in March 1966 scored the first three goals in a league game against Telstar in a 6–2 win. Four days later, in a cup game against Veendam in a 7–0 win, he scored four goals. In total that season, Cruyff scored 25 goals in 23 games, and Ajax won the league championship.

Cruyff playing for Ajax taking on Liverpool defender Tommy Smith in a European Cup game in December 1966

In the 1966–67 season, Ajax again won the league championship, and also won the KNVB Cup, for Cruyff's first "double". Cruyff ended the season as the leading goalscorer in the Eredivisie with 33. Cruyff won the league for the third successive year in the 1967–68 season. He was also named Dutch footballer of the year for the second successive time, a feat he repeated in 1969. On 28 May 1969, Cruyff played in his first European Cup final against Milan, but the Italians won 4–1.

In the 1969–70 season, Cruyff won his second league and cup "double"; at the beginning of the 1970–71 season, he suffered a groin injury. He made his comeback on 30 October 1970 against PSV, and rather than wear his usual number 9, which was in use by Gerrie Mühren, he instead used number 14. Ajax won 1–0. Although it was very uncommon in those days for the starters of a game not to play with numbers 1 to 11, from that moment onwards, Cruyff wore number 14, even with the Dutch national team. There was a do*entary on Cruyff, Nummer 14 Johan Cruyff and in the Netherlands there is a magazine by Voetbal International, Nummer 14.

Johan Cruyff's miracles in Amsterdam were many. He and his coach Rinus Michels (a sort of John the Baptist figure) raised Ajax from obscurity. More important, they invented a new way of playing. Cruyff became the greatest exponent and teacher of 'totaalvoetbal' . His vision of perfect movement and harmony on the field was rooted in the same sublime ordering of space that one sees in the pictures of Vermeer or church painter Pieter Jansz Saenredam. It was the music of the spheres on gr*.

—David Winner, the author of Brilliant Orange: The Neurotic Genius of Dutch Football

In a league game against AZ '67 on 29 November 1970, Cruyff scored six goals in an 8–1 victory. After winning a replayed KNVB Cup final against Sparta Rotterdam by a score of 2–1, Ajax won in Europe for the first time. On 2 June 1971, in London, Ajax won the European Cup by defeating Panathinaikos 2–0. He signed a seven-year contract at Ajax. At the end of the season, he was named the Dutch and European Footballer of the Year for 1971.

In 1972, Ajax won a second European Cup, beating Inter Milan 2–0 in the final, with Cruyff scoring both goals. This victory prompted Dutch newspapers to announce the demise of the Italian style of defensive football in the face of Total Football. Soccer: The Ultimate Encyclopaedia says, "Single-handed, Cruyff not only pulled InterNational Socialist German Workers' Partyonale of Italy apart in the 1972 European Cup Final, but scored both goals in Ajax's 2–0 win." Cruyff also scored in the 3–2 victory over ADO Den Haag in the KNVB Cup final. In the league, Cruyff was the top scorer with 25 goals as Ajax became champions. Ajax won the Intercontinental Cup, beating Argentina's Independiente 1–1 in the first game followed by 3–0, and then in January 1973, they won the European Super Cup by beating Rangers 3–1 away and 3–2 in Amsterdam. Cruyff's only own goal came on 20 August 1972 against FC Amsterdam. A week later, against Go Ahead Eagles in a 6–0 win, Cruyff scored four times for Ajax. The 1972–73 season was concluded with another league championship victory and a third successive European Cup with a 1–0 win over Juventus in the final, with the Encyclopedia stating Cruyff "inspired one of the greatest 20-minute spells of football ever seen".

Barcelona and the first La Liga *le in 14 years

When players like Bale and Ronaldo are worth around €100 million, Johan would go in the billions!

—Franz Beckenbauer, in an interview with Bild.de (September 2014) about Cruyff's transfer value in the early 1970s.

Cruyff played for Barcelona from 1973 to 1978

In mid-1973, Cruyff was sold to Barcelona for 6:million guilders (approx. US$2:million, c. 1973) in a world record transfer fee. On 19 August 1973, he played his last match for Ajax where they defeated FC Amsterdam 6–1, the second match of the 1973–74 season.

Cruyff endeared himself to the Barcelona fans when he chose a Catalan name, Jordi, for his son. He helped the club win La Liga for the first time since 1960, defeating their fiercest rivals Real Madrid 5–0 at their home of the Santiago Bernabéu. Thousands of Barcelona fans who watched the match on television poured out of their homes to join in street celebrations. A New York Times journalist wrote that Cruyff had done more for the spirit of the Catalan people in 90 minutes than many politicians in years of struggle. Football historian Jimmy Burns stated, "with Cruyff, the team felt they couldn't lose". He gave them speed, flexibility and a sense of themselves. In 1974 Cruyff was crowned European Footballer of the Year.

During his time at Barcelona, in a game against Atlético Madrid, Cruyff scored a goal in which he leapt into the air and kicked the ball past Miguel Reina in the Atlético goal with his right heel (the ball was at about neck height and had already travelled wide of the far post). The goal was featured in the do*entary En un momento dado, in which fans of Cruyff attempted to recreate that moment. The goal has been dubbed Le but impossible de Cruyff (Cruyff's impossible goal). In 1978, Barcelona defeated Las Palmas 3–1, to win the Copa del Rey. Cruyff played two games with Paris Saint-Germain in 1975 during the Paris tournament. He had only agreed because he was a fan of designer Daniel Hechter, who was then president of PSG.

Brief retirement and spells in the United States

Cruyff briefly retired in 1978. But after losing most of his money in a series of poor investments, including a pig farm, that were counseled by a scam artist, Cruyff and his family came to the United States. As he recalled, "I had lost millions in pig-farming and that was the reason I decided to become a footballer again." Cruyff insisted that his decision to resume his playing career in the United States was pivotal in his career. "It was wrong, a mistake, to quit playing at 31 with the unique talent I possessed", and adding that "Starting from zero in America, many miles away from my past, was one of the best decisions I made. There I learned how to develop my uncontrolled ambitions, to think as a coach and about sponsorship."

At the age of 32, Cruyff signed a lucrative deal with the Los Angeles Aztecs of the North American Soccer League (NASL). He had previously been rumoured to be joining the New York Cosmos but the deal did not materialise; he played a few exhibition games for the Cosmos. He stayed at the Aztecs for only one season, and was voted NASL Player of the Year. After considering an offer to join Dumbarton F.C. in Scotland, the following season, he moved to play for the Washington Diplomats. He played the whole 1980 campaign for the Diplomats, even as the team was facing dire financial trouble. In May 1981, Cruyff played as a guest player for Milan in a tournament, but was injured. As a result, he missed the beginning of the 1981 NASL soccer season, which ultimately led to Cruyff choosing to leave the team. Cruyff also loathed playing on artificial surfaces, which were common in the NASL at the time.

Return to Spain with Levante

In January 1981, Cruyff played three friendly matches for FC Dordrecht. Also in January 1981, manager Jock Wallace of English club Leicester City made an attempt to sign Cruyff, competing with Arsenal and an unnamed German club for his services, and despite negotiations lasting three weeks, in which Cruyff expressed his desire to play for the club, a deal could not be reached. Cruyff instead chose to sign with Spanish Segunda División side Levante.

On 1 March 1981, Cruyff took the field for the first time for Levante, starting in a 1–0 win against Palencia. Injuries and disagreements with the administration of the club, however, blighted his spell in the Segunda División and he only made ten appearances, scoring two goals. Having failed to secure promotion to the Primera División, a contract with Levante fell through.

Second spell at Ajax

Johan Cruyff with *anese fans in 1982

After his spell in the U.S. and his short-lived stay in Spain, Cruyff returned to playing for Ajax from the start of the 1981–82 season. He had rejoined Ajax on 30 November 1980, before his time as a player with Levante, as "technical advisor" to trainer Leo Beenhakker, Ajax being eighth in the league table at the time after 13 games played. After 34 games, however, Ajax finished the 1980–81 season in second. In December 1981, Cruyff signed a contract extension with Ajax until the summer of 1983.

In the 1981–82 and 1982–83 seasons, Ajax, along with Cruyff, became league champions. In 1982–83, Ajax won the Dutch Cup (KNVB-Beker). In 1982, he scored a famous goal against Helmond Sport. While playing for Ajax, Cruyff scored a penalty the same way Rik Coppens had done it 25 years earlier. He put the ball down as for a routine penalty kick, but instead of shooting at goal, Cruyff nudged the ball sideways to teammate Jesper Olsen, who in return p*ed it back to Cruyff to tap the ball into the empty net, as Otto Versfeld, the Helmond goalkeeper, looked on.

Cruyff's farewell at Feyenoord

Final season at Feyenoord and retirement

At the end of the 1982–83 season, Ajax decided not to offer Cruyff a new contract. This angered Cruyff, who responded by signing for Ajax's archrivals Feyenoord. Cruyff's season at Feyenoord was a successful one in which the club won the Eredivisie for the first time in a decade, part of a league and KNVB Cup double. The team's success was due to the performances of Cruyff along with Ruud Gullit and Peter Houtman.

Despite his relatively advanced age, Cruyff played all league matches that season except for one. Because of his performance on the field, he was voted as Dutch Footballer of the Year for the fifth time. At the end of the season, the veteran announced his final retirement. He ended his Eredivisie playing career on 13 May 1984 with a goal against PEC Zwolle. Cruyff played his last game in Saudi Arabia against Al-Ahli, bringing Feyenoord back into the game with a goal and an *ist.

International career

Cruyff as captain of the Netherlands prior to a game at the 1974 World Cup

As a Dutch international, Cruyff played 48 matches, scoring 33 goals. The national team never lost a match in which Cruyff scored. On 7 September 1966, he made his official debut for the Netherlands in the UEFA Euro 1968 qualifier against Hungary, scoring in the 2–2 draw. In his second match, a friendly against Czechoslovakia, Cruyff was the first Dutch international to receive a red card. The Royal Dutch Football *ociation (KNVB) banned him from Internationals games but not Eredivise or KNVB Cup games.

Accusations of Cruyff's "aloofness" were not rebuffed by his habit of wearing a shirt with only two black stripes along the sleeves, as opposed to Adidas' usual design feature of three, worn by all the other Dutch players. Cruyff had a separate sponsorship deal with Puma. From 1970 onwards, he wore the number 14 jersey for the Netherlands, setting a trend for wearing shirt numbers outside the usual starting line-up numbers of 1 to 11.

The Clockwork Orange of the early 1970s

See also: The Clockwork Orange (Netherlands national football team)

Cruyff led the Netherlands to a runners-up medal in the 1974 World Cup and was named player of the tournament. Thanks to his team's mastery of Total Football, they coasted all the way to the final, knocking out Argentina (4–0), East Germany (2–0) and Brazil (2–0) along the way. Cruyff scored twice against Argentina in one of his team's most dominating performances, then he scored the second goal against Brazil to knock out the defending champions.

(Left): Cruyff in the box during the 1974 World Cup Final, just before he was fouled for a penalty; (right): Three of the most notable figures of the Totaalvoetbal school: Johan Neeskens, Rinus Michels and Cruyff, pictured in 1976

The Netherlands faced hosts West Germany in the final. Cruyff kicked off and the ball was p*ed around the Oranje team 15 times before returning to Cruyff, who then went on a run past Berti Vogts and ended when he was fouled by Uli Hoeneß inside the box. Teammate Johan Neeskens scored from the spot kick to give the Netherlands a 1–0 lead and the Germans had not yet touched the ball. During the latter half of the final, his influence was stifled by the effective marking of Vogts, while Franz Beckenbauer, Uli Hoeneß and Wolfgang Overath dominated the midfield as West Germany came back to win 2–1.

In an interview published in the 50th anniversary issue of World Soccer magazine, the captain of the Brazilian team that won the 1970 World Cup, Carlos Alberto, went on to say, "The only team I've seen that did things differently was Holland at the 1974 World Cup in Germany. Since then everything looks more or less the same to me.... Their 'carousel' style of play was amazing to watch and marvellous for the game."

With regards to role models, Brazilian football manager and former player Telê Santana has mentioned in one interview that he had no idols, though, "My greatest satisfaction would be to manage a team such as 1974 Holland. It was a team where you could pick Cruyff and place him on the right wing. If I had to put him in the left-wing, he would still play . I could choose Neeskens, who played both to the right and to the left of the midfield. Thus, everyone played in any position."

After 1976

Cruyff retired from international football in October 1977, having helped the national team qualify for the upcoming World Cup. Without him, the Netherlands finished runners-up in the World Cup again. Initially, there were two rumours as to his reason for missing the 1978 World Cup: either he missed it for political reasons (a military dictatorship was in power in Argentina at that time), or that his wife dissuaded him from playing. In 2008, Cruyff stated to the journalist Antoni B*as in Catalunya Ràdio that he and his family were subject to a kidnap attempt in Barcelona a year before the tournament, and that this had caused his retirement. "To play a World Cup you have to be 200% okay, there are moments when there are other values in life."

Coaching career

Entry into management with Ajax

Two images of Cruyff as Ajax manager: (left): with Van Basten and Rijkaard in 1986; (right): during a press conference in November 1987

After retiring from playing, Cruyff followed in the footsteps of his mentor Rinus Michels, coaching a young Ajax side to victory in the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1987 (1–0). In May and June 1985, Cruyff returned to Ajax again. In the 1985–86 season, the league *le was lost to Jan Reker's PSV, despite Ajax having a goal difference of +85 (120 goals for, 35 goals against). In the 1985–86 and 1986–87 seasons, Ajax won the KNVB Cup.

It was during this period as manager that Cruyff was able to implement his favoured team formation—three mobile defenders; plus one more covering space – becoming, in effect, a defensive midfielder (from Rijkaard, Blind, Silooy, Verlaat, Larsson, Spelbos), two "controlling" midfielders (from Rijkaard, Scholten, Winter, Wouters, Mühren, Witschge) with responsibilities to feed the attack-minded players, one second striker (Bosman, Scholten), two touchline-hugging wingers (from Bergkamp, van't Schip, De Wit, Witschge) and one versatile centre forward (from Van Basten, Meijer, Bosman). So successful was this system that Ajax won the Champions League in 1995 playing Cruyff's system – a tribute to Cruyff's legacy as Ajax coach.

Return to Barcelona as manager and building the Dream Team

See also: The Hesperia Mutiny (El motí de l'Hespèria/El motín del Hesperia) and The Dream Team (FC Barcelona)

After having appeared for the club as a player, Cruyff returned to Barcelona for the 1988–89 season, this time to take up his new role as coach of the first team. Before returning to Barcelona, however, Cruyff had already built up plenty of experience as a coach/manager. In the Netherlands, he was strongly praised for the attacking flair he imposed on his sides and also for his commendable work as talent spotter. With Barça, Cruyff started work with a completely remodelled side after the previous season's scandal, known as the "Hesperia Mutiny" ("El Motí de l'Hespèria:" in Catalan). His second in command was Carles Rexach, who had already been at the club for a year. Cruyff immediately had his Barça charges playing his attractive brand of football and the results did not take long in coming. But, this did not just happen with the first team, the youth teams also displayed that same attacking style, something that made it easier for reserve players to make the switch to first team football. As Sid Lowe noted, when Cruyff took over as manager, Barcelona of the late 1980s "were a club in debt and in crisis. Results were bad, performances were worse, the atmosphere terrible and attendances down, while even the relationship between the president of the club Josep Lluís Núñez and the president of the Spanish autonomous community they represented, Jordi Pujol, had deteriorated. It did not work immediately but he recovered the iden*y he had embodied as a player. He took risks, and rewards followed."

Main façade of old La Masia, the Barcelona youth academy. La Masia academy was Cruyff's brainchild

At Barça, Cruyff brought in players such as Pep Guardiola, José Mari Bakero, Txiki Begiristain, Andoni Goikoetxea, Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Romário, Gheorghe Hagi and Hristo Stoichkov. With Cruyff, Barça experienced a glorious era. In the space of five years (1989–1994), he led the club to four European finals (two European Cup Winners' Cup finals and two European Cup/UEFA Champions League finals). Cruyff's track record includes one European Cup, four Liga championships, one Cup Winners' Cup, one Copa del Rey and four Supercopa de España.

Under Cruyff, Barça's "Dream Team" won four La Liga *les in a row (1991–1994), and beat Sampdoria in both the 1989 European Cup Winners' Cup final and the 1992 European Cup final at Wembley Stadium.On 10 May 1989, goals from Salinas and López Rekarte led Barcelona to a 2–0 victory against Sampdoria. Over 25,000 supporters travelled to Switzerland to support the team. Cruyff's new Barça took home the club's third Cup Winners' Cup.The European Cup dream became a reality on 20 May 1992 at Wembley in London, when Barça beat Sampdoria. Cruyff's last instruction to his players before they stepped onto the pitch was "Salid y disfrutad" (Spanish for "Go out and enjoy it" or "Go out there and enjoy yourselves"). The match went to extra time after a scoreless draw. In the 111th minute, Ronald Koeman's brilliant free kick clinched Barça's first European Cup victory. Twenty-five thousand supporters accompanied the team to Wembley, while one million turned out on the streets of Barcelona to welcome the European champions home. Victories under Cruyff include a 5–0 La Liga win over Real Madrid in El Clásico at the Camp Nou, as well as a 4–0 win against Manchester United in the Champions League. Barcelona won a Copa del Rey in 1990, the European Super Cup in 1992 and three Supercopa de España, as well as finishing runner-up to Manchester United and Milan in two European finals.

The legacy that Cruyff gave Barcelona, however, was about more than just trophies and records, as he gave Barça a winning mentality and footballing iden*y/ideology that runs through the club till this day. As Barcelona manager, he laid systemic foundations for a prominent school of football: "Barçajax school" or "Barça–Ajax school", as it has been termed by many. The predominant style of play, now known as tiki-taka or tiqui-taca, had been transferred and improved from Ajax to Barça. It was that which has sustained Barcelona since the days of Vic Buckingham, Rinus Michels and Cruyff (as player) in the early 1970s: they were the ideas of Ajax; Total Football, a predominant belief in possession-oriented football with an attack-minded 3–4–3/4–3–3 team formation, rooted in a high offside line, pressing and the interchange of players on the field. When Cruyff became Barcelona's manager in 1988, he reinforced this footballing philosophy. He was also responsible for introducing "rondos" (a circle of players p* the ball to each other, while one in the centre tries to catch it) into the team's training sessions. About Cruyff's lasting influence on Barça's youth academy La Masia, Guillem Balagué noted, "Cruyff demanded changes at the academy and La Masía began regularly producing the players he wanted as well as providing the kids with a sound education, dual ambitions of the Dutch coach and the club. "The player who has come through La Masía has something different from the rest, it's a plus that only comes from having competed in a Barcelona shirt from the time you were a child", says Guardiola. He is talking not only about the understanding of the game and their ability, but about human qualities. The players who go through La Masía are taught to behave with civility and humility. The theory being that, not only is it pleasant to be un*uming, but also if you are humble, you are capable of learning – and the capacity to learn is the capacity to improve. If you aren't capable of learning you won't improve. Since his arrival, Johan had tried and succeeded in convincing the club to train all the junior teams in the same way as the first eleven – and to favour talent over physique."

Cruyff used to smoke 20 cigarettes a day prior to undergoing double heart byp* surgery in 1991 while he was the coach of Barcelona, after which he gave up smoking. He also led the anti-smoking campaign developed by the Health Department of the Catalan autonomous government. Cruyff performed keepy-uppies with a pack of cigarettes by juggling it 16 times – using feet, thighs, knees, heel, chest, shoulder, and head like holding up a ball – in an anti-tobacco video sponsored by the Catalan Department of Health.

With 11 trophies, Cruyff was Barcelona's most successful manager, but has since been surp*ed by his former player Pep Guardiola, who achieved 15. Cruyff was also the club's longest-serving manager. In his final two seasons, however, he failed to win any trophies, falling-out with chairman Josep Lluís Núñez, who ultimately sacked him as Barcelona coach.

While still at Barcelona, Cruyff was in negotiations with the KNVB to manage the national team for the 1994 World Cup finals, but talks broke off at the last minute.

Catalonia national team

Cruyff with the Catalonia national team in January 2013

As well as representing Catalonia on the pitch in 1976, Cruyff also managed the Catalonia national team from 2009 to 2013, leading the team to a victory over Argentina in his debut match.

On 2 November 2009, Cruyff was named as manager of the Catalonia national team. It was his first managing job in 13 years. On 22 December 2009, they played a friendly game against Argentina, which ended in a Catalonia win, 4–2 at Camp Nou. On 28 December 2010, Catalonia played a friendly against Honduras winning 4–0 at Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys. On 30 December 2011, Catalonia played Tunisia in a goalless draw at the Lluís Companys. In their last game under Cruyff, on 2 January 2013, Catalonia drew with Nigeria at the Cornellà-El Prat, 1–1.

Other football-related activities

As a technical advisor

Unofficial advisor to Barcelona president Joan Laporta

I chose Frank Rijkaard, Txiki Begiristain and Pep Guardiola because Johan told me to.

— Joan Laporta, in an interview (March 2017)

Later in his reign as Barcelona manager, Cruyff suffered a heart attack and was advised to quit coaching by his doctors. He left in 1996, and never took another top job, but his influence did not end there. Though he vowed never to coach again, he remained a vocal football critic and *yst. Cruyff's open support helped candidate Joan Laporta to victory in Barcelona's presidential elections. He continued to be an adviser for him, although he held no official post at Barcelona. Back in an advisory capacity alongside Joan Laporta, he recommended the appointment of Frank Rijkaard in 2003. Again Barca was successful, winning back-to-back league *les and another Champions League crown in 2006.

After two relatively disappointing campaigns, Laporta survived a censure motion and an overhaul was needed. In summer 2008, Rijkaard left the club and even though José Mourinho was pushing for the job at Camp Nou, Cruyff chose Pep Guardiola. Many were quick to point to Guardiola's lack of coaching experience, but Cruyff said, "The biggest test for a coach at a team like Barça is the strength to make decisions and the ability to talk to the press, because they don't help and you have to manage that. After that, it's easy for those who know football. But there aren't many who know."

On 26 March 2010, Cruyff was named honorary president of Barcelona in recognition of his contributions to the club as both a player and manager. In July 2010, however, he was stripped of this *le by new president Sandro Rosell.

Return to Ajax as technical director

On 20 February 2008, in the wake of a major research on the ten-year-mismanagement, it was announced that Cruyff would be the new technical director at his boyhood club Ajax, his fourth stint with the Amsterdam club. Cruyff announced in March that he was pulling out of his planned return to Ajax because of "professional difference of opinion" between him and Ajax's new manager, Marco van Basten. Van Basten said that Cruyff's plans were "going too fast", because he was "not so dissatisfied with how things are going now".

On 11 February 2011, Cruyff returned to Ajax on an advisory basis after agreeing to become a member of one of three "sounding board groups". After presenting his plans to reform the club, in particular to rejuvenate the youth academy, the Ajax board of advisors and the CEO resigned on 30 March 2011. On 6 June 2011, he was appointed to the new Ajax board of advisors to implement his reform plans.

The Ajax advisory board made a verbal agreement with Louis van Gaal to appoint him as the new CEO, without consulting Cruyff. Cruyff, a fellow board member, took Ajax to court in an attempt to block the appointment. The court overturned the appointment, saying that the board had "deliberately put Cruyff offside". Due to the ongoing quarrel within the advisory board, Cruyff resigned on 10 April 2012, with Ajax stating that Cruyff will "remain involved with the implementation of his football vision within the club".

Technical advisor for Chivas Guadalajara

Cruyff became a technical advisor for Mexican club Guadalajara in February 2012. Jorge Vergara, the owner of the club, made him the team's sport consultant in response to the losing record Guadalajara sustained in the last few months of 2011. Although signed to a three-year contract, Cruyff's contract was terminated December 2012 after just nine months with the club. Guadalajara said that other members of the team's coaching staff would likely not be terminated.

Amb*ador for Belgium and the Netherlands joint bid to host the World Cup

In September 2009, Cruyff and Ruud Gullit were unveiled as amb*adors for the Belgium–Netherlands joint bid for the World Cup finals in 2018 or 2022 at the official launch in Eindhoven.

Style of play and views on the game

The total footballer

I loved the Dutch in the '70s, they excited me and Cruyff was the best. He was my childhood hero; I had a poster of him on my bedroom wall. He was a creator. He was at the heart of a revolution with his football. Ajax changed football and he was the leader of it all. If he wanted he could be the best player in any position on the pitch.

— Eric Cantona, FourFourTwo, April 2006

An on-field manager: the Dutch team was largely his creation. It was Cruyff, the captain, who told midfielder Arie Haan that he would play as libero. ("Are you crazy?" Haan replied. It proved to be a brilliant idea.) It was Cruyff who had groomed striker Johnny Rep as a youngster at Ajax, sometimes screaming at the bench during games, "Rep must warm up!" It wasn't Cruyff's best month in football, but it was the month that most people saw him and the style he had invented. For many, the Cruyff they know is the Cruyff of his only World Cup. He notionally spent the tournament at centre-forward, but he was everywhere. He'd sprint down the left wing and cross with the outside of his right foot. He'd drop into midfield and leave centre-backs marking air. He'd drop back just to scream instructions. Arsene Wenger tells the story of Cruyff telling two midfielders to swap positions, and returning 15 minutes later to tell them to swap again. To Wenger, this showed how hard it was to replicate the fluidity of "total football" if you didn't have Cruyff himself.

— Simon Kuper, FourFourTwo, July 2009 Cruyff playing with Ajax in 1971. In modern football, Cruyff was one of the brilliant pioneers of the "false 9" position.

Throughout his career, Cruyff became synonymous with the playing style of "Total Football". It is a system where a player who moves out of his position is replaced by another from his team, thus allowing the team to retain their intended organizational structure. In this fluid system, no footballer is fixed in their intended outfield role. The style was honed by Ajax coach Rinus Michels, with Cruyff serving as the on-field "conductor". Space and the creation of it were central to the concept of Total Football. Ajax defender Barry Hulshoff, who played with Cruyff, explained how the team that won the European Cup in 1971, 1972 and 1973 worked it to their advantage: "We discussed space the whole time. Cruyff always talked about where people should run, where they should stand, where they should not be moving. It was all about making space and coming into space. It is a kind of architecture on the field. We always talked about speed of ball, space and time. Where is the most space? Where is the player who has the most time? That is where we have to play the ball. Every player had to understand the whole geometry of the whole pitch and the system as a whole."

The team orchestrator, Cruyff was a creative playmaker with a gift for timing p*es. Nominally, he played centre-forward in this system and was a prolific goalscorer, but dropped deep to confuse his markers or moved to the wing to great effect. In the 1974 World Cup final between West Germany and the Netherlands, from the kick-off, the Dutch monopolised ball possession. At the start of the move that led to the opening goal, Cruyff picked up the ball in his own half. The Dutch captain, who was nominally a centre-forward, was the deepest Dutch outfield player, and after a series of p*es, he set off on a run from the centre circle into the West German box. Unable to stop Cruyff by fair means, Uli Hoeness brought Cruyff down, conceding a penalty scored by Johan Neeskens. The first German to thus touch the ball was goalkeeper Sepp Maier picking the ball out of his own net. Due to the way Cruyff played the game, he is still referred to as "the total footballer". Former French player Eric Cantona states, "If he wanted he could be the best player in any position on the pitch."

Cruyff was known for his technical ability, speed, acceleration, dribbling and vision, possessing an awareness of his teammates' positions as an attack unfolded. Despite his relatively unimpressive stature and strength, Cruyff's tactical brain and reading of the game were exceptional. "Football consists of different elements: technique, tactics and stamina", he told the journalists Henk van Dorp and Frits Barend, in one of the interviews collected in their book Ajax, Barcelona, Cruyff. "There are some people who might have better technique than me, and some may be fitter than me, but the main thing is tactics. With most players, tactics are missing. You can divide tactics into insight, trust and daring. In the tactical area, I think I just have more than most other players." On the concept of technique in football, Cruyff once said: "Technique is not being able to juggle a ball 1,000 times. Anyone can do that by practising. Then you can work in the circus. Technique is p*ing the ball with one touch, with the right speed, at the right foot of your team mate." As Van Basten noted, "Johan is so technically perfect that even as a boy he stopped being interested in that aspect of the game. He could do everything when he was 20. That's why he's been very interested in tactics since he was very young. He sees football situations so clearly that he was always the one to decide how the game should be played." In 1997, Dutch journalist Hubert Smeets wrote, "Cruyff was the first player who understood that he was an artist, and the first who was able and willing to collectivise the art of sports." Sports writer David Miller believed that Cruyff was superior to any previous player in his ability to extract the most from others. He dubbed him "Pythagoras in boots" for the complexity and precision of his p*es and wrote, "Few have been able to exact, both physically and mentally, such mesmeric control on a match from one penalty area to another."

According to England's 1966 World Cup-winning striker Bobby Charlton, "He was pretty intelligent, too! A real football brain. He had superb control, he was inventive and he could perform magic with a ball to get himself out of trouble instinctively. He got a lot of goals, and although he was so skilful, he didn't show off – he played to the strengths of the players around him. This side would really keep hold of the ball."

Win-with-style philosophy (Importance of style and iden*y in football)

Winning is just one day, a reputation can last a lifetime. Winning is an important thing, but to have your own style, to have people copy you, to admire you, that is the greatest gift.

— Johan Cruyff

He didn't have preparation methods and he trusted others to take decide how to train, but he did have a playing method. He didn't move onto plan B, as he instead made plan A stronger.

— Pep Guardiola spoke to Jorge Valdano, September 2018

We don't want to win in just any way. This is the Dutch school of Michels, Cruyff, Van Gaal and Rijkaard. At the centre of every decision is the ball; if you treat it well, you will be rewarded. We are a global club, respected and admired, with the mission to entertain. When I am abroad people say to me: 'I'm not a Barcelona fan, but they captivate me.'

— FC Barcelona's 40th president Josep Maria Bartomeu said in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, January 2016

Cruyff always considered aesthetic and moral aspects of the game; it is not just about winning, but about winning with "right" style/way. He also always spoke highly of entertaining value of the game. The beautiful game, for him, is about as much the entertainment and joy as the results. In thinking of Cruyff, the victory is truly meaningful when it can fully capture the minds and hearts of compe*ors and spectators. As he once noted, "Quality without results is pointless. Results without quality is boring,". For Cruyff and the Cruyffistas (Cruyff's devout followers), to choose a "right" style of play to win is even more important than winning itself. Cruyff always believed in simplicity. He sees simplicity and beauty as inseparable. "Simple football is the most beautiful. But playing simple football is the hardest thing", as Cruyff once summed up his fundamental philosophy. "How often do you see a p* of forty meters when twenty meters is enough?... To play well, you need good players, but a good player almost always has the problem of a lack of efficiency. He always wants to do things prettier than strictly necessary." Cruyff also perfected a feint now known as the "Cruyff Turn". The feint is an example of the simplicity in Cruyff's football philosophy. It was neither carried out to embarr* the opponent nor to excite the watching crowd, but because Cruyff estimated that it was the simplest method (in terms of effort and risk versus expected result) to beat his opponent. Cruyff looked to p* or cross the ball, then, instead of kicking it, he dragged the ball behind his planted foot with the inside of his other foot, turned through 180 degrees, and accelerated away. As Swedish defender Jan Olsson (a "victim" of the Cruyff Turn at the 1974 World Cup) recalled, "I played 18 years in top football and seventeen times for Sweden but that moment against Cruyff was the proudest moment of my career. I thought I'd win the ball for sure, but he tricked me. I was not humiliated. I had no chance. Cruyff was a genius." With its high effectiveness and unpredictability, the Cruyff Turn remains one of the most commonly used dribbling moves in modern football.

Like Dutch football in general until the mid-1960s, Cruyff's early playing career was considerably influenced by coaching philosophy of British/English coaches such as Vic Buckingham. However, his footballing philosophy also shares aspects with the free-flowing style of South American football (Brazilian football in particular) than traditional British/Anglo-Saxon school of football (with distinctively direct, aggressive, heavily athletic, muscular, physical elements in coaching and playing style). However, as Tim Vickery has pointed out, at the 1974 World Cup Cruyff's Netherlands side "rendered South American football obsolete", with the Dutch comfortably defeating Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil on their way to the final: their willingness to press their opponents denied the South American nations' playmakers the time on the ball they were used to having. The effect of this encounter with Total Football on Argentinian and Brazilian football was significant: in Argentina, César Luis Menotti, who became coach of the national team after the 1974 World Cup exit, sought to combine the traditional Argentine p*ing game with a faster tempo of play, emphasising relatively small but hard-working players like Osvaldo Ardiles in leading the national team to victory on home soil in the 1978 World Cup. Whilst Brazil attempted to implement a Total Football philosophy without success in 1978 under coach Cláudio Coutinho before reverting to their traditional style in 1982, Brazilian coaches eventually came to believe that they needed to catch up to the Europeans in terms of their physical development, with the gap in physical size being closed by the turn of the millennium: the nature of Brazil's p*ing game also changed, coming to emphasise quick counter-attacks down the flanks rather than long p*ing sequences.

The mind-body duality always plays an important role in his footballing philosophy. In Cruyff's words, quoted in Dennis Bergkamp's autobiography Stillness and Speed: My Story, "...Because you play football with your head, and your legs are there to help you. If you don't use your head, using your feet won't be sufficient. Why does a player have to chase the ball? Because he started running too late. You have to pay attention, use your brain and find the right position. If you get to the ball late, it means you chose the wrong position. Bergkamp was never late." For Cruyff, football (the so-called beautiful game) is much an artistic-oriented mind-body game instead of an athletic-oriented physical compe*ion. As he put it, "Every trainer talks about movement, about running a lot. I say don't run so much. Football is a game you play with your brain. You have to be in the right place at the right moment, not too early, not too late." The creativity is always the key element in his footballing philosophy, both as a player and as a manager. Cruyff once compared his more intuitive and individualistic approach with Louis van Gaal's more mechanized and rigid coaching style, "Van Gaal has a good vision on football. But it's not mine. He wants to gel winning teams and has a militaristic way of working with his tactics. I don't. I want individuals to think for themselves and take the decision on the pitch that is best for the situation... I don't have anything against computers, but you judge football players intuitively and with your heart. On the basis of the criteria which are now in use at Ajax I would have failed the test. When I was 15, I could barely kick the ball 15 metres with my left and with the right maybe 20 metres. I would not have been able to take a corner. Besides, I was physically weak and relatively slow. My two qualities were great technique and insight, which happen to be two things you can't measure with a computer."

Cruyff's favourite world XI

In his posthumously released autobiography My Turn: The Autobiography, Cruyff reveals his dream all-time XI in his favourite 3–4–3/4–3–3 formation. Cruyff's side (in the 3–4–3 diamond formation) reads as follows: Lev Yashin (goalkeeper); Ruud Krol (full back/wing-back), Franz Beckenbauer (central defender/libero), Carlos Alberto (full-back/wing-back); Pep Guardiola (holding midfielder/midfield anchor), Bobby Charlton, Alfredo Di Stéfano, Diego Maradona (playmaker/attacking midfielder/second striker); Piet Keizer (winger), Garrincha (winger), and Pelé (centre-forward/striker). For humility, Cruyff didn't put himself in there, but there is a spot for his pupil, Pep Guardiola and his former teammates, Ruud Krol and Piet Keizer. It's a typically attacking line-up but Cruyff explains the selection in detail. "For the ideal squad, I also try and find a formula in which talent is used to the maximum in every case", notes Cruyff. "The qualities of one player have to complement the qualities of another."

Cruyff's 14 rules

In his autobiography, Cruyff explained why he made a set of 14 basic rules, which are displayed at every Cruyff Court in the world, "I read an article once about the building of the pyramids in Egypt. It turns out that some of the numbers coincide completely with natural laws – the position of the moon at certain times and so on. And it makes you think: how is it possible that those ancient people built something so scientifically complex? They must have had something that we don't, even though we always think that we're a lot more advanced than they were. Take Rembrandt and van Gogh: who can match them today? When I think that way, I'm increasingly convinced that everything is actually possible. If they managed to do the impossible nearly five thousand years ago, why can't we do it today? That applies equally to football, but also to something like the Cruyff Courts and school sports grounds. My fourteen rules are set out for every court and every school sports ground to follow. They are there to teach young people that sports and games can also be translated into everyday life."

And he listed his 14 basic rules that include:

1. Team player – 'To accomplish things, you have to do them together.';
2. Responsibility – 'Take care of things as if they were your own.';
3. Respect – 'Respect one another.';
4. Integration – 'Involve others in your activities.';
5. Initiative – 'Dare to try something new.';
6. Coaching – 'Always help each other within a team.';
7. Personality – 'Be yourself.';
8. Social involvement – 'Interaction is crucial, both in sport and in life.';
9. Technique – 'Know the basics.';
10. Tactics – 'Know what to do.';
11. Development – 'Sport strengthens body and soul.';
12. Learning – 'Try to learn something new every day.';
13. Play together – 'An essential part of any game.';
14. Creativity – 'Bring beauty to the sport.'

Influence and legacy

There may have been better players in the history of the game, though I doubt you can count them on more than one hand. And there may have been better managers, too, if only because his coaching career only lasted 10 and a half years (during which he won 14 trophies, not a bad return). But it's tough to argue that any man has exerted a greater influence – on the pitch and on the bench – on the game as we know it today.

— Gabriele Marcotti, ESPN FC, 2016 Spain's players celebrating their Euro 2012 victory. It didn't come as a coincidence as Barcelona and Spain ruled the world of football in the same period. Cruyff's football philosophy helped lay the systemic foundations for Spanish period of dominance (2008–2012) in world football at both club and international level.

Cruyff is widely seen as an iconic and revolutionary figure in the history of Ajax, Barça, and the Oranje. David Winner, the author of Brilliant Orange, wrote about Cruyff's influential career in the football world, "There have been lots of brilliant football figures down the years, but none has been as significant as Johan Cruyff. As a player with Ajax, Barcelona and the Netherlands, he put himself in the pantheon along with greats such as Pelé, Diego Maradona, Ferenc Puskás, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane. As coach at Ajax and Barcelona, he built thrilling sides, nurtured a remarkable number of genius players and influenced many of the most important teams in the world. The all-conquering Spain and Barcelona of Xavi and Andrés Iniesta, brilliant Bayern Munich and Germany of today, AC Milan of the late 1980s and many other memorable champions would have been unthinkable without Cruyff. Once radical and revolutionary, Cruyffian principles have become standard throughout the modern game. His blueprint for developing young players has been copied all over the world."

As a player, he turned football into an art form. Johan came along and revolutionised everything. The modern-day Barça started with him, he is the expression of our iden*y, he brought us a style of football we love.

—Barcelona's ex-president Joan Laporta, 2010

Barcelona was not born in the last couple of years. It was born, the style of play now, in the early 90s through Johan Cruyff.

—Head coach of the United States national team Jürgen Klinsmann, 2011.

Referring to the influence of his style of play at Ajax, Barcelona ("Dream Team"), and with the Netherlands ("Total Football"), in addition to the 200 Cruyff Courts he set up around the world for kids to hone their skills, football journalist Graham Hunter states, "Johan Cruyff is, pound for pound, the most important man in the history of football." In his 2011 book, Barça: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, Hunter writes,

If the 175,000 FC Barcelona members queued up in an orderly line, night after night, to m*age his tired feet, cook his dinner and tuck him into bed; if they carried his golf clubs round Montanyá's hilly 18 holes; if they devoted 50 percent of their annual salary to him ... it still wouldn't be near enough to repay the debt those who love this club owe Johan Cruyff. If he had not installed a culture, a philosophy at the Nou Camp, then Lionel Messi would have been rejected and sent home as an underdeveloped 13-year-old kid. Andrés Iniesta wouldn't have been selected.

Dietrich Schulze-Marmeling:, author of the German biography of Cruyff ("Der König und sein Spiel: Johan Cruyff und der Weltfußball" or "The King and His Game: Johan Cruyff and the World Football" in English), concluded that the Dutchman was the most influential figure in football history, stating no one made a bigger impact both as a player and as a manager.

Cruyff is sometimes described as a typical kind of 'artist-footballer' or 'footballer-thinker' who considers football, the so-called 'beautiful game', not a purely athletic/physical compe*ion but an artistic-oriented mind-body game. Because of his distinctive footballing views, Cruyff was called 'the Spinoza of football' by some. He believed in a certain style of play, which has the power to put a smile on the people's faces as he described it. When Cruyff, both as a player and as a manager, spoke about football he often mentioned the entertainment value of the game, that there is more to it than winning. In a 2009 interview with Sportmail's Martin Samuel, Arsène Wenger, as a devout follower of Cruyff's footballing ideology, once shared his opinion about football's artistic value,

I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art. When you read some books they are fantastic, the writer touches something in you that you know you would not have brought out of yourself. He makes you discover something interesting in your life. If you are living like an animal, what is the point of living? What makes daily life interesting is that we try to transform it to something that is close to art. And football is like that. When I watch Barcelona, it is art.

Chérif Ghemmour:, the author of Cruyff's French biography, called him 'the greatest actor in the history of football' because Cruyff was an exception (possibly the only one) being the man who 'played' outstandingly well multiple roles in the world of football: player, manager, and thinker. For many people, more than just a great footballer or sportsman, Cruyff is also a remarkable cultural figure. Outside football, there were many articles about the applicability of Cruyff's principles and views in the football world into other fields, such as business management and education.

As a player

There was also no rational reason why Dutch football should produce someone like Cruyff at the time that he began kicking around a ball in the East Amsterdam planned neighbourhood of Betondorp... Until he pulled on the Oranje jersey, the Dutch national team had failed to qualify for a major tournament since before World War II. No Dutch side had won European silverware. It was very much a footballing backwater, as likely to spawn a guy who would change the sport forever as Jamaica is to produce the world's greatest downhill skier.

— Gabriele Marcotti, ESPN FC, 2016

We showed the world you could enjoy being a footballer; you could laugh and have a fantastic time. I represent the era which proved that attractive football was enjoyable and successful, and good fun to play too.

—Johan Cruyff

Regarded by many as Europe's first true football superstar, Cruyff is often mentioned alongside the pair widely considered the finest to have played the game, Pele and Maradona. As a player, he greatly helped turn the previously backward and obscure Dutch football (at both club and international level) into a world-cl* powerhouse in the 1970s. In Simon Kuper's words, "without Cruyff, Holland wouldn't have had a footballing tradition." Cruyff is always considered to be an indisputable icon in Ajax's history, especially in the club's golden era (1966–1973). He was instrumental in Ajax's transformation from a semi-professional club into a dominant force in European club football. Cruyff inspired Ajax to win the European Cup three times in succession at the beginning of the 1970s before moving to Barcelona in 1973 and helping the club win their first La Liga *le in 14 years. In 1974, he led the Netherlands to their first FIFA World Cup final and received the Golden Ball as player of the tournament.

Johan Cruyff after the 1973 European Cup Final. Ajax's victory meant that the club had earned the privilege of becoming the second European side, after Real Madrid, to keep the original European Cup/UEFA Champions League trophy permanently. Ajax is one of only five clubs (besides Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, A.C. Milan, and Liverpool) to achieve this feat.

Cruyff was the most famous exponent of the school of football known as Total Football (Totaalvoetbal in Dutch) pionereed by Jack Reynolds and later explored by his protégé Rinus Michels. Being known as "the total footballer", he was also one of the brilliant pioneers of the "false nine" position/role in modern football. In Total Football's heyday (in the early 1970s), Cruyff was truly an 'on-field tactician', an 'on-field manager', or a 'coach-player' at the same time, before the concept of player-coach was at the height of its popularity in professional football during the 1980s and 1990s. As Argentinian World Cup winner Jorge Valdano said of Cruyff, in an interview with Thomas Goubin of SoFoot.com,

Never in my life have I seen a player like Cruyff rule matches. He was the owner of the show. Much more than his team, the referee or the fans. His grip on what was happening on the field was amazing. He was a player, coach and referee at the same time.

Chris McMullan (of FootballFanCast.com) writes that "he was an anomaly. A man who played football like no one else. He didn't physically play football after all, he played it with his mind. An esoteric pursuit that completely changed the game. A visionary, a departure, a flight of fancy – Cruyff is the ultimate because his contribution to the game wasn't simply personal. He didn't break records, he didn't win golden boots, and only occasionally dazzled with skills. The reason he is a great is because he understood the game like no one else ever did and probably ever will. ... His vision, his ability to see the game in a way that no one else could have was his gift. It showcases his talent, the way he formulated the game in his head and then was able to execute it perfectly with his legs." And he concludes, "There is no one goal, no one clip of football that can encapsulate Johan Cruyff's contribution to football. No one piece of video could ever do that. That's not surprising. Cruyff wasn't a Pele or a Maradona whose careers can be summed up with a series of vines