muo89 said:
The Dutch legend passed away on Thursday at the
age of 68, but his legacy lives on. No other man
has had such an incredible influence upon football
over the past 50 years

He may be gone, but his impact will be long-
lasting. Johan Cruyff changed football forever: as a
player, a coach, an advisor and one of the game's
great thinkers, the Dutch legend leaves a lasting
legacy. He transformed the sport in the modern
era.

Cruyff liked to be different. Determined to succeed
as a youngster as his father passed away before
his teenage years, the young Johan (born Hendrik
Johannes) honed his skills as a footballer.
His mother worked as a cleaner for Ajax and his
step-father was a labourer at the Amsterdam club.
So the young Cruyff learned the value of hard work
from a young age and practising persistently to
perfect his talents, he joined the Ajax academy
and went on to become the finest footballer in the
club's history.

Cruyff led Ajax to three European Cups and won
the Ballon d'Or three times as well. Under the
revolutionary Rinus Michels, Johan became the
leading exponent of a new playing style. Total
Football. And together, the pair also led
Netherlands to the World Cup final in 1974 - losing
out to West Germany in Munich.
Despite the defeat, they won the hearts of football
fans all over the world with their pioneering play.
"We lost one of the most important games of our
lives, but I think that brought us more fame than
we could ever have had by winning," he later said.
"Because everybody wanted us to win, that
brought even more attention, sympathy and
affection. For four weeks in that tournament no
one was talking about winning or losing – the
world audience just wanted to see the nice football
we played. So, it is not an excuse, it is true – the
result of the final doesn't even bother me."
Netherlands lost the 1978 final as well, but this
time Cruyff was not present. He had decided to
miss the tournament for personal reasons, but
was exerting his impressive influence in a new
place: Barcelona.

Ajax had wanted to sell the midfielder to Real
Madrid, but again Cruyff wanted to be different.
"I remember my move to Spain was quite
controversial," he said. "People said I was going to
a fascist country. The president of Ajax wanted to
sell me to Real Madrid. But I was born shortly
after the war, though, and was taught not to just
accept anything. Barcelona weren't at the same
level as Madrid football-wise, but it was a
challenge to play for a Catalan club. Barcelona was
more than a club."

And with Cruyff, they would become even greater.
The Dutchman's first year at Camp Nou was
spectacular as the Catalans claimed La Liga for the
first time since 1960, thrashing Madrid 5-0 along
the way in a result shrouded in symbolism even
today.

The rest of his time in Catalunya was less
successful, yet he had some stellar advice for
president Josep Lluis Nunez before he departed.
Cruyff told the club chief to build an Ajax-style
academy and bring through young players as he
himself had emerged at the Amsterdam side. That
way, he said, they could compete with Madrid.
Always atypical, Cruyff then moved to the United
States, had a spell back in La Liga with Levante and
led Feyenoord to the title in his homeland when
most believed he had little left to offer.

When he returned to Barcelona to continue a
coaching career he had started successfully at
Ajax, it was again amid an era of Madrid
dominance. Cruyff arrived in 1988, with Real's
Quinta del Buitre in the middle of five straight Liga
titles. Nunez thought bringing back the Dutchman
could change all that - and he was right.
It took a while, but young players were emerging
from the youth team and Cruyff combined them
with some of the world's finest footballers. The
Dream Team was born, winning four consecutive
Liga titles between 1991 and 1994, as well as a
maiden European Cup. Suddenly, Barca were no
longer in Madrid's shadow.

In his first week back at the club, Cruyff went to
watch the youth teams and spotted a young Pep
Guardiola playing on the right of midfield. He
asked former team-mate Carles Rexach to move
the skinny youngster into the centre for the second
half and play the 'pivot' position. He adapted
instantly and was soon turning out for the first
team.
Guardiola would become Cruyff's "coach on the
pitch" and Pep pulled the strings in a tremendous
team that, at the time, was the most successful in
Barca's history.

Later in his reign, Cruyff suffered a heart attack
and was advised to quit coaching by his doctors.
When he left in 1996, he would never take another
top job, but his influence would not end there.
Back in an advisory capacity alongside Joan
Laporta, he recommended the appointment of
Frank Rijkaard in 2003. Again Barca were
successful, winning back-to-back league titles and
another Champions League crown in 2006.
But again, there was even more to come. After two
relatively disappointing campaigns, Laporta
survived a censure motion and an overhaul was
needed. Rijkaard left the club and even though
Jose Mourinho was pushing for the job at Camp
Nou, Cruyff chose Guardiola.
Many were quick to point to the Catalan's lack of
coaching experience, but the Ducthman said: "The
biggest test for a coach at a team like Barca is the
strength to make decisions and the ability to talk to
the press, because they don't help and you have to
manage that. After that, it's easy for those who
know football. But there aren't many who know."
And Guardiola knew. So the baton handed by
Michels to Cruyff was passed by Johan to Pep and
Barca embarked on the most successful spell in
their entire history, winning all six trophies on
offer in the former club captain's first 18 months
as coach. And in 2010, a Spain side featuring the
core of that team went on to win the World Cup,
beating Netherlands in a final upon which Cruyff
had left an indelible impression - although he was
much more identified with the style shown by La
Roja.

"This ugly, vulgar, hard, hermetic, hardly eye-
catching, hardly football style, yes it served the
Dutch to unsettle Spain," he said afterwards. "If
with this then they got satisfaction, then fine. But
they ended up losing. They were playing anti-
football."

Cruyff was all about style and as he had said with
regard to the Dutch defeat in 1974, if he was going
to lose, then it must be respecting a philosophy.
That, to him, was more important than winning.
On Thursday, the 68-year-old ultimately lost his
battle with lung cancer, yet his unique style will be
imprinted upon football forever, and the game is
infinitely richer thanks to the influence of Johan
Cruyff.

An innovator, a fashion icon, an educator, a
fabulous footballer, brilliant coach, great thinker
and an all-round guru in the modern game, Cruyff
leaves with the team he helped to build
dominating modern football and with his famous
passed penalty in 1982 immortalised recently by
Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez.
Through his Foundation, his University and his
programmes for youngsters, meanwhile, he also
strived to change the lives of kids all around the
world.

"Children need help from us," he told Goal in an
exclusive interview in 2009. "I educated myself on
the streets. I went on a bicycle, played football,
was running around doing whatever, but today it's
always in a car, and there's no place to play on the
street. So you have to create something different.

It's the same body that you are born with that you
die with. Okay you can change a few things, but not
too much. And today with cars, computers, the
Internet and whatever else, physical education is
at a very low level and sport can do something
about it."

Whatever he did, Johan Cruyff fought to make a
real difference. How he will be missed.
Johan (Hendrik Johannes) Cruyff, footballer,
born 25 April 1947; died 24 March 2016