10 People who changed football for good

#10 Johann Cruyff

Cruyff changed the way Barcelona played football

Tiki-taka, carefully crafted turns and rewarding youth set-ups; all have daring Dutchman Johann Cruyff to thank for their inception. During his reign as Barcelona manager in the early 1990s and late 1980s, Cruyff won the European Cup and four successive Spanish league titles.

He placed emphasis on retaining possession and wanted his side to play simple football. A young Pep Guardiola was heavily influenced by the 1974 World Cup finalist and such tactics were employed in Guardiola’s success with the Catalan club twenty years later.

Cruyff set up La Masia youth academy with Barcelona and was an advocate of allowing young talent to flourish through games with the first team. In his playing career, he scored some of the most sensational goals of the century, impressing with skill and style in the process. His creation of the skill move the ‘Cruyff turn’ remains the bedrock of his glittering legacy.

Eight Eredivisie titles and a European cup with Ajax, Cruyff was sensational off the pitch as well as on it and, with one of the greatest football brains of all time, he is the main pioneer of the way many teams desire to play today.