Johan Cruyff: Dutch maestro of total football
JOHAN Cruyff, who has died of cancer aged 68, was one of the few great soccer players to be equally successful as a manager.
Cruyff dominated the game during the 1970s, becoming the first player to win the title of European Footballer of the Year three times and inspiring the Dutch team — of which he was captain — to the heights of “total football”.
The side’s finest moment came against West Germany in the World Cup final of 1974. From the kick-off, the Dutch strung together 16 passes before finding the deeplying Cruyff. He set off on a swerving run, his lissom frame gathering pace until he burst into the box past a startled Berti Vogts, the German defender, whose late tackle brought Cruyff to the ground. Johan Neeskens converted the resulting penalty, and the hosts were a goal down without having touched the ball.
It was the most sensational start to a World Cup final, and soon exposed the flaw in the temperament of both Cruyff and his side — arrogance. It rarely counted against the Dutch maestro during his playing career, but on this occasion it was fatal; his team thought the game would be easy, and let the less skilful but energetic Germans score twice and win the match.
Cruyff, as happened when things went against him, became argumentative and was booked at halftime. His complex personality and penchant for footballing politics denied him the chance ever to grace another World Cup.
Cruyff was born in Amsterdam on April 25 1947. His father was a grocer, and the family lived across the street from Ajax’s stadium. His mother worked as a cleaner at the club’s offices, and it was she who persuaded the staff to sign her son to the youth team at the age of 12. Young Johan’s potential was encouraged by Ajax’s English coach, Vic Buckingham, and it was he who gave Cruyff his senior debut at 17; he scored in his first match. MERCURIAL: A 2014 photo of Cruyff
Buckingham was soon replaced by the sterner Rinus Michels, in partnership with whom Cruyff evolved the style of play that became known as total football. Based on an idea first propounded by Austrian Willy Meisel 15 years earlier, total football broke with rigid team formations and demanded that each player be equally adept in every outfield position.
This bred a most attractive and fluid style of game, with players able to take turns in sustaining the momentum of near-continuous attack.
Although Cruyff was nominally a centre-forward, he would invariably appear at the apex of each attack, his coltish pace carrying him down the wing, his nimble feet controlling the midfield. In the days before squad numbers, Cruyff’s choice of the No 14 for the back of his shirt was symbolic confirmation that on the field he would not be confined to one po- GAME CHANGER: Johan Cruyff at FC Barcelona in 1977. When he moved to the legendary Spanish club in 1973, it faced relegation — but ended the season winning the league sition. Between 1964 and 1973 Cruyff played 215 league games for Ajax and won six league championships and four domestic cups.
Cruyff’s principal attributes — which, unusually for a great footballer, he put at the service of his team — were speed of thought, vision and acceleration. He was a wonderful player of long passes and noted for the pace at which he drove into the box, often winning penalties, as in the 1974 World Cup final. He married cheek and skill, exemplified in the manoeuvre that bears his name, the “Cruyff turn”, a combined inverted drag-back of the ball and reverse of direction that could twist a defender inside out.
He knew his value, too, and his aloof manner made him unpopular in the Ajax and Dutch dressing rooms, as well as with his sponsors. Contracted to wear one brand of boots, he renounced them when he decided that they hurt his feet, incurring stiff financial penalties for each time he played without them; undeterred, he did so 98 times.
Cruyff was also no respecter of the Dutch football authorities; he lobbied successfully for better conditions for professional footballers and once refused to play against Poland because he had not been insured against injury.
In 1973 Cruyff moved to leg- endary club Barcelona for £922 000, a sum that doubled the previous world record for a player; money was always important to Cruyff and he collected £400 000 himself for the deal.
His fee was quickly justified. When he arrived at Barcelona, the club was in the relegation zone; within six months Cruyff had taken them to a league championship that included a 5-0 away win over Real. His status as the greatest player of his era was confirmed in 1974 by his third award in four years as European Footballer of the Year.
He refused to play in the 1978 World Cup and, having been fleeced of much of his savings by business partners, began to drift around the infant American League, playing for the Washington Diplomats.
He then tried to hire himself out as a footballing mercenary to clubs on a weekly basis for half the gate receipts.
He was rescued by Ajax in 1982 and repaid them by winning two league titles before, in typically chimerical fashion, deciding that the club could not afford him and joining their arch-rivals Feyenoord.
In 1986 Cruyff returned to Ajax as manager. He proved his value as an inspiration to young players, bringing through the talents of Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Dennis Bergkamp and winning the European Cup-Winners Cup. But his demands once more proved too much, and after a quarrel with the directors, he left for Barcelona.
The proud and mercurial Cruyff’s managerial career was not without incident. He refused to sit for his coaching exams in the Netherlands and at Barcelona disciplined players who did not conform to his playing instructions, notably Gary Lineker.
Cruyff was unusual in his ability to play football and smoke upwards of 40 cigarettes a day. He quit the habit after heart surgery. He married his wife, Danny, in 1968; they had two daughters and a son. — © The Daily Telegraph, London