I have just read the extraordinary autobiography of Johan Cruyff, one of the greatest footballers of all time. The book is called “My Turn”[i] which if you know his story well is quite witty as the Cruyff turn was a manoeuvre that Cruyff invented as a way of beating an opponent on the pitch. But the title of “My Turn” also implies that it's his turn to tell the world what he thinks and he certainly does that.  I read the book, of course, in translation and while I have no knowledge of Dutch the translation reads extremely well and is very convincing.

I was reasonably familiar with Cruyff’s amazing career and I had the pleasure of seeing him once in a match against Manchester United which he totally dominated. He is, of course, one of the most successful people in world football as a player, coach and manager and also from time to time as tactical advisor. He was not particularly academic as he spent so much of his time just playing football but he was highly intelligent and for example could hold his own in press conferences answering questions in Dutch, English, German, French and of course Spanish. Indeed as well as Spanish I think he knew quite a lot of Catalan.

In this blog I don't just want to list his football achievements though I will give a summary of them.  I also want to explain his philosophy of football which I think is unique and is one of the reasons why he became such a successful manager with Barcelona. What I had absolutely no knowledge of is the rest of his legacy which is extensive, covering charities and education, extending types of sport to encourage young people to play and he received many honours in his lifetime from not only the Dutch nation but also many international bodies.

The book was published posthumously in 2016 and he can only have finished it shortly before he died of lung cancer. In the book he refers to the fact that in 2015 he was diagnosed with lung cancer but at that time they were still optimistic in finding a solution. He smoked 20 cigarettes a day for many years until a heart attack convinced him to give up and he then became a passionate anti-smoker appearing in adverts telling people the harm it does. He was born in 1947. When he was 12 his father died of a heart attack aged about 45. Johan grew up thinking that he was quite likely to inherit his father’s health problems and might also not lead a long life. He was nearly proven right. In the end he was 68 when he died and he had achieved more in his lifetime than almost anybody else I can think of.

He won the Ballon D’or three times in 1971, 1973 and 1974. His mentor Rinus Michels developed a concept of football philosophy known as Total Football of which Cruyff became the supreme proponent not just as a player who nearly won the World Cup but also the far-reaching impact of his playing style and his coaching ideas. He is therefore widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in modern football and is seen as one of the greatest football managers of all time. Prior to that Dutch football had been semi-professional and quite low level. Cruyff joined Ajax as a boy and with them he won 8 league titles, three European cups and one Inter-Continental Cup. In 329 matches for Ajax he scored 257 goals and provided more than 170 assists.

In 1973 he moved to Barcelona for a then world record transfer fee of about $2 million. Barcelona, now thought of as one of the very top clubs in the world, at that time had been on a fairly poor run of form only winning the league once in 14 years. But in his first season the team won the league. In all he played 180 official matches for Barcelona scoring 63 goals and providing 83 assists.
In 1999 Cruyff was voted European Player of the Century in an election held by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics and second only to the great Pele in their World Player of the Century poll. Cruyff believed that every player in the team had to be versatile. His striker was the first defender and his goalkeeper was the first attacker. Players needed to think that they should stay close to each other. It takes two to make a pass. If they are short it is more likely to succeed. This means that while the pitch may be 100 metres long and sixty metres wide, players should concentrate on a smaller area. This will disorientate the opposition. That is the essence of Total Football.

Cruyff joined the Ajax system on his 10th birthday. He made his first team debut in 1964 scoring the only goal for Ajax in a 3-1 defeat and that year Ajax finished in their lowest position since they established professional football. Within two years Cruyff had become a regular first team player and scored 25 goals in 23 games. Ajax won the League and Cup double and again they won the League for the third successive year. in 1967-68 when Cruyff was still only 21 he was named Dutch Player of the Year which he repeated in 1969. In that year he played in his first European Cup Final against Milan but lost 4-1.  

Before a game in 1970 one of Cruyff’s teammates could not find his #7 shirt. Cruyff offered him the use of his usual #9, He just picked up a spare shirt from the box which was #14. In those days it was very uncommon for the starters of the game not to play with numbers 1 to 11. He scored the winner in that game and from then on Cruyff only wore #14 even with the Dutch national team. The number 14 became one of the symbols in his life as we will see later.

In 1971 in London Ajax won the European Cup by defeating Panathinaikos 2-0 and again the following year they won a second European Cup beating Inter Milan 2-0 in the final with Cruyff scoring both goals. They went on to win the Intercontinental Cup beating Argentina’s Independiente 4-1 on aggregate and then in 1973 they won the European Super Cup beating Rangers 6-3 on aggregate. Later that year they won the League Championship once more and a third successive European Cup with a 1-0 win over Juventus in the final.

Cruyff’s world transfer record fee of around $2,000,000 seems like nothing compared with today's stormy valuations. Franz Beckenbauer in an interview about this in September 2014 said “when players like Bale and Ronaldo are worth around €100 million Johan would go in the billions.” Cruyff won the Barcelona fans over when he chose the Catalan name Jordi for his son. At that time politics in Spain was still dominated by General Franco.  The Catalan terms were not allowed but Cruyff argued his case demonstrating that he was living and paying his taxes in Spain but he chose his son's name.

He helped the club win the League for the first time since 1960 defeating their strongest rivals Real Madrid 5-0 in the Bernabeu stadium in Madrid. A New York Times journalist wrote that Cruyff had done more for the spirit of the Catalan people in 90 minutes than many politicians in years of struggle and the historian Jimmy Burns, whom I know well, stated, “with Cruyff, the team felt they couldn't lose.” in 1974 Cruyff was crowned European Footballer of the Year.

Cruyff briefly retired in 1978 but he lost most of his money in a series of poor investments including a pig farm where he'd been conned by a scam artist. He decided to move to the United States and become a footballer again and not only did he have his usual success, he also learned a lot more about the game because of the better ways in which American sport is organised. He played first for Los Angeles Aztecs and although he was there only one season he was still voted North American Soccer League Player of the Year. He then joined the Washington Diplomats, then briefly went back to Spain playing for a Spanish second division side Levante in 1981. That was less successful and so in June 1981 he returned to the US. In December that year he signed a contract with Ajax till the summer of 1983. In those two seasons Ajax were champions and won the Dutch Cup in one year. Sadly at the end of the contract Ajax decided not to offer him a new contract. That made Cruyff angry. He responded by signing for Ajax’s arch rivals Feyenoord. He had an immediate impact. In his first season they won the 1st division for the first time in 10 years and for the 5th time Cruyff was voted as Dutch Player of the Year. He played his last game in 1984.

As a Dutch international Cruyff played 48 matches scoring 33 goals and the national team never lost a match in which he scored. Iin the 1974 World Cup he led the Netherlands to a runners up medal and was named Player of the Tournament. I remember that tournament very well. England had not qualified and I supported the Netherlands. They knocked out Argentina 4-0, then West Germany 2-0 and Brazil 2-0 along the way to the Final. At the beginning of the Final, straight from Cruyff’s kick off the Dutch players passed it around 15 times before returning to Cruyff. He went on a run and was fouled inside the box by Hoeness.  Johan Neeskens scored from the spot and the Germans had not yet touched the ball. However, later in the match the Germans dominated the midfield and effectively limited Cruyff’s influence and Germany came back to win 2-1.

The Netherlands qualified again for the 1978 World Cup and again finished runners up but this time Cruyff had not gone and it was later revealed that he and his family had been subject to a kidnap attempt in Barcelona where they were threatened by guns and tied up. For several months they had police living in their house. In that situation he did not feel that he could leave his family. Retiring from playing football he returned to Ajax again this time as a coach. There followed a series of successful seasons once more with Ajax before he returned to Barcelona this time as manager. Barcelona had not been successful for some time. Under Cruyff’s management in the space of five years 1989 to 1994 he led the club to four European finals - two European Cup Winners’ Cup Finals and two European Cup Finals. They won four league titles in a row. With 11 trophies Cruyff was the most successful manager Barcelona had ever had. This has since been surpassed by Pep Guardiola. Guardiola was developed as a player by Cruyff. Guardiola was seen as a midfield player but Cruyff actually posted him in defence where he had a huge impact.

 After leaving management he still continued with various clubs including Ajax again as technical director. But after his heart attack he did not take any full-time jobs but was still very busy with his other interests. He founded the Johan Cruyff Institute, an educational institution aimed at educating athletes, sport and business professionals in the field of sport management, sport marketing, football business, sponsorship and coaching through a network that has five Johan Cruyff Institutes (postgraduate and executive education), three Johan Cruyff Academies (graduate education) and five Johan Cruyff Colleges (vocational training). He also founded the Johan Cruyff Foundation from his wish to give children the opportunity to play and be active whatever their level of disability. He introduced Cruyff Courts which are smaller sized football fields suitable for seven-a-side games. A Cruyff Court provides a modern alternative to the ancient green public playgrounds which used to be found in a lot of neighbourhoods and districts but over the years have been sacrificed due to urbanisation and expansion.

In his autobiography Cruyff explained why he made a set of 14 basic rules which are displayed at every Cruyff Court in the world: “I read an article once about the building of the pyramids in Egypt. It turns out that some of the numbers coincide completely with natural laws - the position of the moon at certain times and so on. And it makes you think how is it possible that those ancient people built something so scientifically complex? They must have had something that we don't, even though we always think that we’re a lot more advanced than they were. Take Rembrandt and Van Gough: who can match them today? When I think that way I'm increasingly convinced that everything is actually possible. If they managed to do the impossible nearly five thousand years ago, why can't we do it today ? That applies equally to football, but also there's something like the Cruyff Courts and school sports grounds. My fourteen rules are set out for every Court in every sports school sports ground to follow. They are there to teach young people that sports and games can also be translated into everyday life.”

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