The Dutch legend passed away on Thursday at the age of
68, but his legacy lives on. No other man has had such an
incredible influence upon football over the past 50 years
COMMENT
He may be gone, but his impact will be long-lasting.
Johan Cruyff changed football forever: as a player, a
coach, an advisor and one of the game's great thinkers,
the Dutch legend leaves a lasting legacy. He transformed
the sport in the modern era.
Cruyff liked to be different. Determined to succeed as a
youngster as his father passed away before his teenage
years, the young Johan (born Hendrik Johannes) honed his
skills as a footballer.
His mother worked as a cleaner for Ajax and his step-
father was a labourer at the Amsterdam club. So the
young Cruyff learned the value of hard work from a young
age and practising persistently to perfect his talents, he
joined the Ajax academy and went on to become the finest
footballer in the club's history.
Cruyff led Ajax to three European Cups and won the Ballon
d'Or three times as well. Under the revolutionary Rinus
Michels, Johan became the leading exponent of a new
playing style. Total Football. And together, the pair also
led Netherlands to the World Cup final in 1974 - losing out
to West Germany in Munich.
Despite the defeat, they won the hearts of football fans all
over the world with their pioneering play.
"We lost one of the most important games of our lives, but
I think that brought us more fame than we could ever
have had by winning," he later said. "Because everybody
wanted us to win, that brought even more attention,
sympathy and affection. For four weeks in that tournament
no one was talking about winning or losing – the world
audience just wanted to see the nice football we played.
So, it is not an excuse, it is true – the result of the final
doesn't even bother me."
Netherlands lost the 1978 final as well, but this time
Cruyff was not present. He had decided to miss the
tournament for personal reasons, but was exerting his
impressive influence in a new place: Barcelona.
Ajax had wanted to sell the midfielder to Real Madrid, but
again Cruyff wanted to be different.
"I remember my move to Spain was quite controversial,"
he said. "People said I was going to a fascist country. The
president of Ajax wanted to sell me to Real Madrid. But I
was born shortly after the war, though, and was taught
not to just accept anything. Barcelona weren't at the
same level as Madrid football-wise, but it was a challenge
to play for a Catalan club. Barcelona was more than a
club."
And with Cruyff, they would become even greater. The
Dutchman's first year at Camp Nou was spectacular as
the Catalans claimed La Liga for the first time since 1960,
thrashing Madrid 5-0 along the way in a result shrouded in
symbolism even today.
The rest of his time in Catalunya was less successful, yet
he had some stellar advice for president Josep Lluis Nunez
before he departed. Cruyff told the club chief to build an
Ajax-style academy and bring through young players as he
himself had emerged at the Amsterdam side. That way, he
said, they could compete with Madrid.
Always atypical, Cruyff then moved to the United States,
had a spell back in La Liga with Levante and led
Feyenoord to the title in his homeland when most believed
he had little left to offer.
FULL STORY | Cruyff passes away at 68
When he returned to Barcelona to continue a coaching
career he had started successfully at Ajax, it was again
amid an era of Madrid dominance. Cruyff arrived in 1988,
with Real's Quinta del Buitre in the middle of five straight
Liga titles. Nunez thought bringing back the Dutchman
could change all that - and he was right.
It took a while, but young players were emerging from the
youth team and Cruyff combined them with some of the
world's finest footballers. The Dream Team was born,
winning four consecutive Liga titles between 1991 and
1994, as well as a maiden European Cup. Suddenly, Barca
were no longer in Madrid's shadow.
In his first week back at the club, Cruyff went to watch
the youth teams and spotted a young Pep Guardiola
playing on the right of midfield. He asked former team-
mate Carles Rexach to move the skinny youngster into the
centre for the second half and play the 'pivot' position. He
adapted instantly and was soon turning out for the first
team.
Guardiola would become Cruyff's "coach on the pitch" and
Pep pulled the strings in a tremendous team that, at the
time, was the most successful in Barca's history.
Later in his reign, Cruyff suffered a heart attack and was
advised to quit coaching by his doctors. When he left in
1996, he would never take another top job, but his
influence would not end there.
Back in an advisory capacity alongside Joan Laporta, he
recommended the appointment of Frank Rijkaard in 2003.
Again Barca were successful, winning back-to-back
league titles and another Champions League crown in
2006.
But again, there was even more to come. After two
relatively disappointing campaigns, Laporta survived a
censure motion and an overhaul was needed. Rijkaard left
the club and even though Jose Mourinho was pushing for
the job at Camp Nou, Cruyff chose Guardiola.
Many were quick to point to the Catalan's lack of
coaching experience, but the Ducthman said: "The biggest
test for a coach at a team like Barca 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."
And Guardiola knew. So the baton handed by Michels to
Cruyff was passed by Johan to Pep and Barca embarked
on the most successful spell in their entire history, winning
all six trophies on offer in the former club captain's first
18 months as coach. And in 2010, a Spain side featuring
the core of that team went on to win the World Cup,
beating Netherlands in a final upon which Cruyff had left
an indelible impression - although he was much more
identified with the style shown by La Roja.
"This ugly, vulgar, hard, hermetic, hardly eye-catching,
hardly football style, yes it served the Dutch to unsettle
Spain," he said afterwards. "If with this then they got
satisfaction, then fine. But they ended up losing. They
were playing anti-football."
Cruyff was all about style and as he had said with regard
to the Dutch defeat in 1974, if he was going to lose, then
it must be respecting a philosophy. That, to him, was
more important than winning.
On Thursday, the 68-year-old ultimately lost his battle
with lung cancer, yet his unique style will be imprinted
upon football forever, and the game is infinitely richer
thanks to the influence of Johan Cruyff.
An innovator, a fashion icon, an educator, a fabulous
footballer, brilliant coach, great thinker and an all-round
guru in the modern game, Cruyff leaves with the team he
helped to build dominating modern football and with his
famous passed penalty in 1982 immortalised recently by
Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.
Through his Foundation, his University and his
programmes for youngsters, meanwhile, he also strived to
change the lives of kids all around the world.
"Children need help from us," he told Goal in an exclusive
interview in 2009. "I educated myself on the streets. I went
on a bicycle, played football, was running around doing
whatever, but today it's always in a car, and there's no
place to play on the street. So you have to create
something different. It's the same body that you are born
with that you die with. Okay you can change a few things,
but not too much. And today with cars, computers, the
Internet and whatever else, physical education is at a very
low level and sport can do something about it."
Whatever he did, Johan Cruyff fought to make a real
difference. How he will be missed.
Johan (Hendrik Johannes) Cruyff, footballer, born 25 April
1947; died 24 March 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment