Ballon d'Or: Ranking the top 5 midfielders to have won the award

#1 Johan Cruyff (1971, 1973, 1974)

Cruyff left an indelible mark on the game of football

In the history of football, it can be argued that no single man has had as much of an impact on the evolution of the game as Johan Cruyff.

He was the quintessential exponent of the 'total football' philosophy espoused by Rinus Michels - a tactical variation that saw players function in a variety of outfield positions - to cover for teammates when they overlap or get caught out of position.

This was a revolutionary philosophy that went against the more static systems in the day and is still being implemented to this day.

On the field of play, Johan Cruyff was an unplayable monster, combining excellent positioning and goalscoring abilities with brilliant dribbling and passing technique.

He introduced the 'Cruyff turn' to the lexicon of football, while he also left an indelible mark on the histories of two legendary clubs in Barcelona and Ajax.

Johan Cruyff was in many ways an iconoclast who refused to stick to stick to established conventions and regularly had fallouts with football authorities when he felt his rights or those of his teammates were being trampled upon.

In a major deviation from the norm of the time, he was the first high-profile starter to shift away from the practice of using jersey numbers from 1-11, instead choosing the number 14 and this is the number that is forever associated with him.

He helped Ajax to the most successful period in their history, leading the club to three successive European Cup victories as well as numerous other domestic titles. There were also successful spells with Barcelona and Feyenoord.

Upon retirement, he ventured into football management and arguably had more success on the bench than on the field, first with Ajax and then with Barcelona.

At Camp Nou, under his management, the famed 'dream team' won the club's first European Cup, four consecutive league titles, in addition to numerous other major trophies.

His biggest legacy at Barcelona, however, came in his successful implementation of the Ajax training academy (which he also introduced) at Camp Nou. Called La Masia, the academy has gone on to produce some of the best players in Barcelona's history including Lionel Messi, Pep Guardiola, Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol among others.

Cruyff was named the Ballon d'Or winner on three occasions and his coaching methods went on to influence future coaching greats like Pep Guardiola, Louis Van Gaal, Luis Enrique, and a host of others.

Sadly, the Dutch icon passed on in March 2016, losing his battle with Lung cancer but his legacy would forever live on.