Legends of Club Football: Johan Cruyff

The first names any kid would think of when someone says “Football’s Greatest”, is easily Pele or Maradona – or even the current-day almighty Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. In between all these names, is one that is forgotten by a majority of fans today. All the Barcelona fans and Spain fans have one man to thank for all the success and accolades they get for their playing style today. The one who revolutionised football and yet, stayed an enigma. Johan Cruyff.

Born in Watergraafsmeer, a polder in Amsterdam, located close to the old de Meer Stadion – the old home of AFC Ajax, Johan Cruyff grew up as any other Dutch boy would have – playing football on the streets. However, after his father died when Cruyff was merely 12, Ajax took a bigger role in his life. His stepfather was the groundskeeper at the football club and his mother worked there too. Hence, for the major part of Cruyff’s childhood, the de Meer was his second home. Cruyff grew up there. He’d just be kicking a ball around and help bring the players water or fetch balls. He was Ajax’s little mascot.

When Cruyff joined the youth setup and fairly swiftly, joined the first team, some of those players were still at Ajax. They were this little star’s guides and applauded him for a good match, but if his head grew too big, they would prick it and deflate it back to normal. Scoring on his debut as a 17-year-old, Cruyff was nothing short of a prodigy. But it didn’t intimidate him. He was surrounded by players he’d seen everyday as a kid, the dressing room he’d visited everyday.

The 1965-66 season was when Cruyff announced himself to the Netherlands. Scoring 25 in 23 games, the 19-year-old centre forward helped Ajax lift yet another Eredivisie title, initiating the Amsterdam club’s domination of first the Netherlands, and then Europe.

The 1960s signalled the start of the Dutch contribution to Total Football. Started by the Magyars, picked up by Ajax coach Jack Reynolds, who then inspired Rinus Michels, who was in charge of Ajax when Cruyff was there as a player. Ajax were playing a type of football the Netherlands had never seen before, a fluid conglomeration of technical ability, teamwork and skill. Michels needed a translator – someone who could convert his ideas into action and bring it out on the pitch and in Cruyff, Michels found exactly that.

But Cruyff had his own issues with Michels. The coach enacted a strict no-smoking policy and as a rebellious youngster, Cruyff was caught smoking with the 2nd goalkeeper during training once; as a result, Michels banned Ajax’s very symbol from training sessions. Between 1967 to 1969, Cruyff won the Dutch Footballer of the Year award consecutively. In 1969 for the first time, Cruyff took to field wearing a #14 shirt, something that was considered out of the ordinary then but became synonymous with his name ever since, with Ajax even retiring the number in his honour.

In 1969, Cruyff and Michels reached the European Cup Final in Madrid, and lost to European behemoths, AC Milan. But it was crucial experience for Ajax. Two seasons later, the Ajax ascendancy in Europe would officially start. On a sunny, tepid London afternoon at Wembley, Cruyff and his team took to the field against Panathanaikos. Slotting into left midfield but terrorising the Greek team all over the pitch, Cruyff played crucial parts in both goals as Ajax began their domination of Europe where the legendary teams of Benfica and Real Madrid had once ruled.

A year on, Ajax were back in the final, with a managerial change but the same philosophy. De Kuip Stadion was closer to Amsterdam than London and the Ajax faithful did not disappoint. Millions cheered as the “sons of God” – Ajax’s nickname – faced off against an Inter side all the way from Italy. Starting at centre-forward, Cruyff was frustrated for the first half. After all, the Italians are known to be deadly defenders. But then arrived the greatest moment in the history of Total Football, as people say. Cruyff, finally breaking out of the shackles of Facchetti to score once and again within half an hour. It wasn’t a case of one-off success for this Ajax – oh, they were here to stay, alright!

The year after that, Johnny Rep would score against Juventus to give Ajax their third consecutive European Cup, becoming only the second club to do so, behind the legendary Real Madrid side of the late 1950s. But this would be the end of Cruyff’s affair with both the European Cup and Ajax. Capping off by winning the Ballon d’Or for the second time in three years in 1973, behind-the-scenes issues with the Board at Ajax and the way things were run meant that one of Ajax or Cruyff had to give in. Ajax, after its recent success had become too big an icon in the Netherlands to do that, and as the reigning World Player of the Year, Cruyff had to part ways with the club which made him who he was.

In the summer of 1973, Cruyff decided to join Barcelona, at a time where the club had been trodden upon and pushed to the periphery by the infamous Franco regime in Spain. Cruyff made an instant capture of Catalan hearts by publicly saying he did not join Real Madrid as he did not want anything to do with Franco and named his third child, Jordi – a Catalan name, which had to be registered in the Netherlands as Franco, with the use of Catalan prohibited.

In his first season, Cruyff led the team to their first La Liga title since 1960 and picked up another European Footballer of the Year award. Barcelona, pre-Cruyff and post-Cruyff only had one difference, one difference that meant the world – a winning mentality. A confidence that only the World Player of the Year himself could exude. When he arrived, the club was second from bottom and from his debut, they went unbeaten till they won the league.

In 1974 came the World Cup too, and the Netherlands went in as hot favorites, with a well-rounded team and the best player in the world at the time. Michels and Cruyff would unite again, and with players like Neeskens and Rep, the Netherlands steamrolled their way through their matches. In the match vs Sweden, Cruyff introduced to the world a move that would stay tagged to his name forever. With all his usual tricks tried, Cruyff pulled the ball back with his non-stationary foot to produce a 180-degree turn that left the fullback catching thin air. The biggest match thus far would be the one against the reigning champions – Brazil. Cruyff set up one and scored one himself to inflict a 2-0 defeat on the Samba boys and as he put it himself, “We didn’t only outplay them, we outplayed them with good football.”

In the final, they faced hosts West Germany. Cruyff admitted that they knew they were much better and went in with little fear. Within a few minutes of the start, Cruyff, deployed in central midfield went on a run which won them a penalty. Neeskens buried it and the Dutch were 1-0 up. But soon enough, West Germany won a penalty of their own which Breitner struck in. By half time, der Bomber, Muller had put them ahead. The match ended 2-1 – complacency and overconfidence getting the better of the tournament favourites. What was to ignite Dutch dominance of World football was burnt to embers – in two finals since, the Netherlands are yet to taste World Cup victory. But that was the only World Cup Cruyff would take part in. Increased pressure and attempts to kidnap his family forced Cruyff to bring his national career to a premature end.

In 1974, Cruyff picked up his third European Footballer of the Year award, as Barcelona’s fulcrum and star. But for a short while, Cruyff retired from football, before moving to the United States and then Levante for a short stint. Then, Cruyff decided he had to complete the circle and returned to Ajax, where he played upfront with a certain youngster called Marco van Basten, looking to make his mark. In the 1981–82 and 1982–83 seasons, Ajax, along with Cruyff, became league champions again and in 1982, he scored the most audacious penalty. After placing it and running as normal, he nudged it sideways to teammate Jesper Olsen, who passed it back for Cruyff to tap in, past the Helmond keeper.

Ajax refused to offer the 36-year-old Cruyff a new contract in 1983 and this dented Cruyff’s ego. He responded by defying his own stance as a childhood Ajax supporter and a club legend and signed for their fiercest rivals – Feyenoord Rotterdam. He won a KNVB Cup and League double in his solitary season there, playing all but one game with the emerging Ruud Gullit and Pete Houtman. He was voted Dutch Footballer of the Year again and thus, ended his playing career off very nicely.

Following retirement, Cruyff followed his mentor, Michels’s steps by taking over as manager at Ajax, himself mentoring a future Ballon d’Or in Marco van Basten and winning a European Cup Winner’s Cup. During his time here, Cruyff tinkered with formations and found his favourite formation with 3 defenders, a defensive midfielder, who played almost like an attacking sweeper, two central midfielders, two extreme wingers and a second striker supporting the main striker. Louis van Gaal later used this formation to lead his Ajax team to their 4th Champions League title in 1995.

Cruyff took over at Barcelona in 1988, 15 years after he’d joined as a player, and started seriously tinkering with Total Football here. Bringing in players like Pep Guardiola, Txiki Bergiristain, Goikoetxea, Michael Laudrup and Romario over the course of his reign, Cruyff established Total Football firmly in the philosophy players followed at Barcelona. He won 4 La Liga titles and a first ever Champions League title for Barcelona among others, ending off with a tally of 11 titles – only later surpassed by his managerial protege, Pep Guardiola, who made very minimal changes to the fundamentals of Cruyff’s idea and reaped immense benefits.

Cruyff has since been the honorary president of Barcelona, but later stripped of the title by Sandro Rosell, manager of the Catalonia team and technical advisor to boyhood club Ajax. Not in any official position as such, Cruyff frequently comments about both Ajax and Barcelona.

Cruyff was never a perfect man. Off the field, he was an addicted smoker and used to smoke in between trainings at both Ajax and Barcelona. Smoking around 20 cigarettes a day till a heart bypass surgery, Cruyff then became an anti-smoking supporter. Cruyff also had a big ego, and to an extent, being so darn good did get to his head.

For example, he was an ambassador of Puma but the Netherlands were sponsored by adidas. Cruyff refused to don the three stripes kit and play; the KNVB had to give in, allowing him to play with a two-striped shirt. In his life since his managerial stint at Barcelona, Cruyff had been appointed Sporting director for Ajax twice and Chivas Guadalajara once. But in all three cases, Cruyff either left or sacked because he simply did not want to agree with anyone else, and held his own. Cruyff’s egotistic persona meant that he made quite a few enemies all around the world, but on the pitch, no one would disagree with the magnitude of talent at the Dutchman’s disposal.

He had the making of an all-round footballer – the total footballer. He had every ingredient required to form a complete player – pace, acceleration, technical ability, was ambidextrous and above all, had an unparalleled vision. He was aware of every single of his teammate’s movement on the pitch and had the ability to change the game in a single moment of magic. And above everything, he had a magnetic persona on field; he had the power to bring out the absolute best in each one of his teammates.

Johan Cruyff was beyond a normal footballer – he was a visionary, a genius, held in such regard as scientists and mathematicians. Referred to as ‘Pythagoras in boots’, he could always see an option no one else did. He believed that the spectators should enjoy the game, that they should go home after experiencing a show of skill and silky football, with smiles on their faces. He finished off the transition that the Magyars had started, he had made football a complete art form.

Johan Cruyff sought to transform football in the face of monumental odds. He was willing to suffer for greatness, willing to embrace dogged effort and endless preparation with the zeal of a martyr.

Should anyone ever mention the phrase ‘complete footballer’, there is really only one who would fit the bill.

Hendrik Johannes Cruyff.

The Pythagoras in Boots.